DEAR ABBY: My husband has cancer, and the doctors say he has maybe a year left. Before his diagnosis, we had friends we would hang out with and go to dinner with once or twice a month. Now I don’t hear a word from them. They don’t call or text to ask how we are doing. Is it my responsibility to get ahold of them? I feel like I’m all alone in this fight, and they don’t seem to care. — INVISIBLE IN IOWA

DEAR INVISIBLE: What a sad letter. Please accept my sympathy for your husband’s prognosis. This is a tragic situation, and not one that you and your husband should be facing alone. The absence of these friends may have less to do with lack of caring than an overwhelming fear of cancer and an inability to face their own mortality.

Of course you can reach out to them. But after that, if they still can’t step up, you might have better luck by joining a cancer support group. If you do, you will find you are nowhere near as alone as you think you are.

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Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.