I'll regale my tale, then.
Jan 2021: Match with Nadia. She's my age, has a son my son's age, and we hit it off extremely fast. Texting back and forth a few weeks, and then decide to meet up. The evening before we're supposed to meet, she calls it off, saying that an ex has wanted to try things one more time with her. We lose contact.
Jan 2022: We match again. She's over aforementioned ex, and we basically fall back into the same deep connection/conversation. After a few weeks, we meet (children **** schedules up, so it took a while). From there on, we see each other every week, when possible. She's been off work for a while with stress, at that point, but it doesn't bother me.
March 2022: Her father is diagnosed with lung cancer. This cuts down on her weekend time with me, as she wants to go to him. Totally natural response, that I go along with.
June 2022: She starts being more brief with me, and having less time for me, which is understandable - her father isn't doing well, and she's the one that has to start thinking about how to settle his affairs, IF something should happen.
July 4th-ish: She ends it, saying her father was deemed terminal a week prior, and that she's unable to feel her attraction to me, when I'm not near her. Basically our relation creates a "bubble" of freedom, but not one she can really experience often enough for her to thrive. We break contact.
July 5th: She writes me a happy birthday message, and asks if it's okay that she resumes contact. I say thanks, and say "I don't really know", so she doesn't pursue it further.
July 18th-ish: She puts up a "Goodbye Dad" message on FB, he died July 10th. I react to it, and we end up writing again. She's missed me, etc etc. I invite her over for a few days later. All is good, she says she's really missed me, and we agree to slowly start up again.
August 4th: She says she's falling back into the same pattern, and I recognize it too - she's just not capable of feeling for me, while also handling grief. We break contact. At this point I keep an eye on her IG stories and FB posts, looking for clues in either direction. To my mind, she's clearly still interested, so I'm biding my time. OTOH, I'm well aware that she's going though a bunch of stuff, and that it might be years before she's ready for any serious form of commitment. My rule of thumb is thus: Her birthday is Nov 4th - I didn't set an alarm or a reminder, relying instead on memory. If I forgot, I'd obviously gotten over her. If not, then I'd shoot her a nice, neutral "happy birthday" message.
October 28th: She called me at 5 AM, drunk, to talk. I didn't hear it, so I didn't pick up. Did write her a message, though, so we resumed contact. She was adamant she had gotten better, and was ready to try things out. We saw each other as much as possible (I had my son full time during November, so it was limited).
November 28th: She came over, after a week of being ill with a stomach flue (thus, not much contact), and said she no longer felt desire for me. She also said she'd begun crying a lot about her father again during that week, but insisted the two weren't related. We broke contact, and I removed her from social media.
My feeling at this time: We had an amazing connection, which is really what I miss. I wasn't happy with how much we saw each other, and I wasn't happy with her on/off contact. She also represented the dream of finding a woman with the same priorities as me, someone that understands why I prioritize my son like I do - as well as a woman that could be my partner and confidante.
But, she wasn't actually that person. She also didn't appreciate my humor, which meant I put a lid on it - never a good sign. It occurs to me now, that I've never known her - only her when she's sick with stress, and when she's going through sorrow.
So, I don't think the girl I fell in love with, really exists/was ever attainable. I can certainly feel that I'm not particularly jealous of the next guy she finds, because he's gonna inherit all her baggage and emotional rollercoasters.