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A few months ago, I reached out to a professor whose research I’m genuinely interested in. We had a few positive conversations, and she asked me to prepare by reading papers and sending her weekly updates on my progress before potentially joining her lab. For the first several weeks, I sent updates every week (or every other week). After a while, though, she stopped replying. I kept sending updates for a bit, but eventually I had to stop because my life became very chaotic. Around that time, my mom was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, and I spent weeks at the hospital helping care for her. Between hospital visits, appointments, and everything that came with that, I wasn’t able to keep up with the updates or continue preparing the way I had planned. Things are a little more stable now, and I’m wondering if I should email the professor again. I was thinking of briefly explaining that I had a serious family medical emergency, apologize for disappearing, and let her know I’m still very interested in joining her lab if the opportunity is still available. My concern is that since she had already stopped replying before I disappeared, maybe she’s no longer interested, and emailing again would just be bothering her. If you were in my position, would you send one more email, or would you take the silence as a sign to move on? I’d really appreciate honest opinions
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Honest opinion: you're overthinking it. You seem aware and you appear to be well-spoken (written), so I think you've got it figured out. Send the email, mention the family medical matter, ask if there's still an opportunity for you to work with her. If she's not interested, she either won't reply, or she will reply and say it's not a good time or she's not taking students or whatever else. An email isn't a bother; if she responds in an inimical way, probably not someone you want to work with in the first place.