Hi Martha - So glad to hear your mum is feeling better. I worry about mine too; my brother is a doctor, and tells me that due to years of neglect (she still is a chronic workaholic), the best my mum can do at this stage is damage control. Makes me sad that good health is out of her reach.
About SO and the disappearance of 'rest of my life' from his vocabulary - to be honest, I'm not sure what it could mean in his case. I can tell you though that since NG's affair, I no longer discuss 'forever'. Not because I have ruled out forever with NG, just that I feel more comfortable focusing on a timeframe that seems less unpredictable i.e. now.
Perhaps the more interesting point is how would his back peddling on 'forever' change your decisions about today, this week, this month?
Slowly 
