Telling the truth isn’t always comforting, but sometimes, it’s the only way to protect someone you care about.

So, what would you do if your family kept acting like a loved one’s chronic illness would disappear, even though the doctors made it clear it wouldn’t?

Would you let them continue living in denial?

Or would you speak up when their false hope starts to hurt the person who’s actually living with the diagnosis?

In the following story, one woman finds herself in this very situation and is unsure if she made the right choice.

Here’s what happened.

AITA for breaking the News that my FIL is not ever going to be cancer free again?

So, my (27f) father-in-law (62m) was diagnosed with a chronic form of cancer a little less than a year ago.

My husband (32m) and his brother (32m) and their mother (62f) have been part of the process from day one (and heard the explanation I am about to give, too).

The cancer he had is not of the aggressive kind, but it will never go away either.

The best-case scenario is that the doctors can stop chemo, and some kind of immune therapy takes over the treatment successfully.

The first round of treatment didn’t work, so they started over.

They tried this for the first time in November of last year (stop the chemo he had been having since the diagnosis) and tried to let the immunotherapy take over.

But in March, they came to the conclusion that this takeover did not work, and they had to restart.

Different chemo, different immunotherapy.

His family doesn’t realize that their comments are insensitive.

This is the way it will always be for my FIL.

He understands this.

The rest of the family does not seem to understand and keeps telling him he needs to rest a lot and wait until the cancer is gone to restart doing the things he did before (simple stuff like working in his garden, but also meeting up with his friends, going for a bike ride).

He told me once he hates these comments because they want him to wait it out, but there is nothing to wait out because it is not going away.

Lately, he just starts crying whenever someone says anything like it.

And yesterday he left the room.. people were like “why is he so sensitive?”

They didn’t like what she had to say.

And I was like, because his illness is chronic and will not go away, you are literally asking him to stop his life forever.

You all heard the doctors, why do you keep talking about “when it’s over?”

It is not going to be over, ever.

They all claimed never having heard that before, but we were all present when the doctor gave this diagnosis.

But maybe it was such a shock to them that they deliberately forgot it?

AITA?

Wow. What a really sad situation.

Let’s see what advice the people over at Reddit have to offer her.

This person totally gets it.

Yet another person who understands how the FIL feels.

According to this person, she’s doing everyone a favor.

This person suggests she keep being his advocate.

She did the right thing.

While it may hurt them to hear the truth, it pales in comparison to what the FIL is going through.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.