Search Results: long term relationship breakup

I started talking to this girl I really liked, and we seemed to hit it off. We both recently got out of long term relationships, and we meshed very quickly. She opened up to me very quickly and we seemed interested in dating.
Unfortunately she was 2 hours away for school and having finals so I couldn't get down there to see her and she was too busy to take that time too. BUT she was only a few weeks away from going on a month long break.
We set up for our first date, and I tried really hard to make it special. I changed my shift so I'd be opening instead of closing. I brought her some roses and we had plans to get dinner and see a light show.
But when I picked her up, she was dead silent. I gave her the roses and she didn't seem to care. We had to kill some time, so we started watching a movie at my place and she had barely said anything. Finally she said she was having a migraine and I turned off the movie, dimmed the lights and gave her some medicine and she tried to rest.
Very quickly she asked me to take her home. I did, and on our way home, she grabbed my hand and said she felt awful, and she did have a migraine, but also she thought she was ready to date again, and she was still having issues with her breakup and she said I was an incredible guy and she wanted to be with me but she couldn't at that moment.
She kept stroking my arm and she seemed very upset, and said she'd understand if I didn't want to see her again. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and said I understood. She gave me a big hug , and went to go back in her home. She came back and gave me another hug, and that was it.
She knew I changed my schedule and I drove 40 minutes to get her, 40 minutes to my place and 40 minutes back.
Did I handle this right? And did she play me?

Putting aside all other factors other than the loss of a loved one, do you feel that one is more superior than the other from an emotional standpoint? Don't count financial loss, kids involvement, etc... I'm talking strictly about the loss people feel during a breakup or divorce. Do you see one as emotionally more damaging than the other?

My mother and I were having a disagreement on this topic and I decided to do a poll to get some outside advice.

My mother believes in a more spiritual/supernatural explanation for why she feels marriage holds a stronger emotional bond than a relationship without the title. She's Christian so she believes that God created man and woman to "become one" when they are married. She says that I can't fully understand it because I'm young and I haven't been married before. She says it's something someone just has to experience.

I agree with how divorce can most likely have a greater effect than a break up because most of the time dating doesn't hold the same responsibility that marriage does. The title of marriage and the fact that you're signing yourself away to a huge life commitment emotionally and financially automatically gives it an advantage. But I suggested to her that it is possible for a couple that's going through the breakup of a serious relationship to have the same emotional damage as a maritally divorced couple. Most long term dating relationships do explore/carry out the same duties that make up an officially married couple.

To me, marriage is just a title. I think how close a couple is during the relationship has wayyy more to do with how they'll feel once separated regardless of label. I explained that I think there's a logical explanation for why divorce might typically have more of an emotional effect than dating. There's gotta be a quantifiable reason as to why people often feel a greater connection when they have the marriage title.