Yo, I am your girlfriend in my own situation. My mom had a terminal illness and my bf and I started dating. We'd been friends previously and we fell madly in love so naturally gave it a shot even though we knew my number 1 responsibility was to my mom, as I was her primary caregiver. I saw him as much as I could on my days off and got to move in with him a few months after my mom was put on hospice.

I'm not going to lie to you. It was hard. Our was really hard on my bf because he couldn't really do much to fix my anxiety over it and he felt helpless. It started to become a strain and almost destroyed or relationship. Almost. We're doing really well now. I started seeing a therapist so I could figure out how to constructively deal with my anxiety and also so I could express what I was going through to my bf in a way he could understand.

My mom died a week before Thanksgiving and while it was sad it was also a relief to us because we no longer had to watch her suffer every day.

If you decide that you want to be there for your gf you need a support system. She needs a support system. Things are going to be tough. Sometimes really tough and you might think about giving up. I know I did. But I also realized that I was going through something traumatic and I wasn't thinking strait. So give your doubts a little time to make sure. You're going to have a lot of different emotions. You might feel helpless because you obviously can't fix cancer yourself. You might feel angry that your gf is in pain and there's not always something you can do. She might be angry that this is happening to her family. It's easy to want someone to blame when you're angry and there's no one really at fault. Don't blame each other. You might accidentally or subconsciously start to resent each other over the stress and the fact that out can be hard to see the other side sometimes. Don't let that happen. Talk about how you feel with each other and make sure you guys stay on the same page.

If your gf isn't already in therapy she could benefit. A therapist can be reassuring in times of great stress when you can be unsure what to do or if what you're feeling is normal. Go with her once or twice of you can so you can understand each others feelings.

So yea, it was really hard, but my situation was hard anyway. Life gets hard, but sometimes if you're like me you stick it out and count your lucky stars that you didn't give up.