This is never easy. And, to say the least, this poor man has gone through quite a bit of grief from my efforts to be re-assured. Sometimes he got it and sometimes he didn't. The times he didn't get it were tough. And we didn't.
Communication is so difficult.
It's almost easy when things go well. When things don't go well is when it gets hard. So hard in fact that most people prefer to just let it break down rather than working it out. Men and women communicate very differently. For the same reason God created us differently.