How to interpret a “pause”

I need help. I’m pretty new to dating - I married right out of college and was with my husband nearly 25 years before we split up. So now that I’m out here dating for the first time as a 40-something, I sometimes feel like i missed some key memos. I think my biggest blind spot is that I’m never quite sure what to take at face value and when to read between the lines.

So I was recently in the early stage of seeing someone - I guess we were “dating” but not “together”; we did agree we were exclusive but we hadn’t gotten to the point of really labeling the relationship or anything like that. But it was going really well - great chemistry, lots in common, shared values. Then a family situation came up for him - without going into detail, his child had a health-related issue surface that requires a lot of appointments and parental involvement in figuring out the treatment plan etc. So he told me all of this and said he needs to press pause on our relationship while he works through all of this. I am very sympathetic to the position he’s in and completely get the need to take a step back for awhile. So we’ve been in sporadic contact since then - a few texts here and there. And I guess I’m just starting to second guess myself for so readily taking all of what he said at face value. I think about him a lot, like every day, and I don’t have any interest in turning the godforsaken apps back on if this really is just a pause. But what if in reality he’s just done with our thing, but didn’t want to say it directly? I feel like he’s not the type to string someone along, but what if he thought I’d read between the lines and understand he was letting me down easy? I just hate not knowing if he and I are on the same page about all of this or if he’s actually moving on while I’m sitting here thinking we’re going to pick things back up again when things on his homefront are a bit less fraught.

I’d like to send him a quick note checking in since we haven’t connected in 4-5 days but now I’m wondering if it will come off the wrong way and if instead I should just “match his energy” as I’ve often heard advised. Advice please!