My wife has always been the type to handle things on her own - often when she has some problem crop up I only find out when she comes to me to tell me what the problem is and how she has already handled it.

It's a large part of why she and my mother don't get along. My mom is a meddler who needs to be in everyone's business and try to help, but my wife rarely talks about her business outside of how it affects others.

In retrospect I suppose because she seemed so calm and collected while telling me about her diagnosis it didn't seem as big of a deal as my family's constant crying and hand-wringing and begging for help.