Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Trippin, I truly was not being spiteful when I wrote to his family. A month ago, just before he went into the hospital, I wrote an email to them because he had asked me to be his primary caretaker during his cancer treatment and I was afraid they saw me as too much of an outsider. We'd been dating for 6 months, and I didn't think they knew how serious things were between us. I showed him the letter before I sent it, and he encouraged me to send it. During his treatment, I was at the hospital almost every waking moment. I felt a subtle tug of war from his daughters, and I tried to back away at times to give them time alone with their dad. When they weren't there, I sent text updates to the entire family when there was news from a lab test or the doctor.

I've also kept in constant contact with his mother. She called me frequently to get updates and see how he was doing because she didn't want to bother him. His brother did that as well. Last week, his mother called several times and wanted to know why I wasn't with him. She sounded hurt and disappointed in me. She asked why I was not being his caretaker anymore. That broke my heart. At the time, I simply told her he had not asked to see me, which was true.

I know a lot of people don't care what others think, but I'm not one of them. Despite what this man did, I felt awful about walking away from him mid-way through his cancer treatment. Especially since I had told his family I would be by bis side. I felt they needed and deserved an explanation. My letter was not mean-spirited. I told them I was not trying to disparage him, I just needed them to understand why I could no longer be his caretaker.