Steve,
Very moving story and good luck whatever life may bring. It is amazing how often timing appears to have a reason in hindsight.
My story is very similar to the first half of yours. I don't remember an age when I didn't golf, and since my dad was the greenkeeper and my mom was a bartender at our small club, summers during my childhood were essentially spent there, playing, working, eating, living. I ended up with a scholarship to Bradley University, a smaller D1 school in central Illinois and played with decent success for my first couple years. By spring of sophomore year interests were dramatically switching to academics and the social scene and burnout was setting in to the point where I quit the team as a senior.
For several year after college (also graduated in 1997) I was working and living downtown Chicago. Because priorities remained shifted and golf was a combination of inconvenient, time consuming and expensive, I only played a few times a year for several years. After 4 - 5 years, I started getting the itch again. I was frustrated with how poor I would play when I did, so I started playing more and more each year, hitting balls and getting a weekly game. After spending about a decade in the city, my family had the opportunity to move about 90 miles away to an area where golf is much more convenient and less of a time commitment. As a result, I've been playing regularly again, sometimes with my son, sometimes at 5:00 AM before work and in club events and some tournaments. I've tried to get competitive again on a state level, but between work commitments and family, I find myself it difficult to compete with regularity at this point.
Unfortunately in the North I have a forced break almost every year. When football season starts and days get shorter it's hard to keep myself motivated unless there is some event to play for, knowing a forced 5 month break is just around the corner.
I'd just let it play out, and see if the desire pulls you back in when the time is right.