|
You can't distract her from it if she doesn't even think you're listening. How is she supposed to know what you were trying to do or if you even read that text? You could have said something about it first thing just to get it out of the way and see how she feels about it and then go ahead and try to divert her attention or just talk about whatever came naturally. Seems like you are trying too hard to do something for her instead of actually empathizing with her about the potential loss of her grandmother.
Nobody can really do anything about it except the doctors, so I would think you should just stop thinking about you and what you're supposed to be doing for her and just be there for her when she needs to do her thing. Ignoring it and talking about it all the time are two extremes... follow her lead and let her talk about it when she wants to talk about it. It's really only when she starts getting stuck in a feedback loop of negative thoughts that you should try to divert her attention because that is her actively making it worse. Otherwise, she should have the liberty of thinking and talking about it now and then, particularly when she is reacting to news.
As for the apology, you could just briefly explain that you were so concerned for her that you didn't really know what to do and you picked the wrong thing. She should understand that.
|