Cyber, I am so sorry to hear about your wife and situation and can only say we can help and give as much advice as is useful to you. Obviously only you will know when it's a good time to get away for a few days.

On one hand I would be tempted to say shove on a rear rack and some panniers and go do some credit card touring, if for no other reason then A) You have a decent bike for that purpose and B) It'll give you some sense of what touring is about.

I think you need to figure out about how many miles you want to do in a 3/4 day, how well you handle hills, then maybe look at a road map and pick a destination. Then use Google Maps to help pick a route. You don't have to pick the perfect route and sometimes screwing up and getting on the 6 lane freeway teaches you about route planning. The idea is to just go.

The concept of buying a full blown tourer is a good one as they can be adapted to about any use, except maybe downhill mt. bike racing. It also becomes a "someday" goal to look forward to, for when things get better in your life.

One idea for fit of a tourer would be to replicate the fit of the Felt with the idea of having the handlebar at seat level. That's kind of a starting point for sport and touring bikes. If your Felt has zero drop and has its h-bar at seat level now, then write down the dimensions - middle of seat to middle of stem (reach), h-bar drop if any, etc.. My Tomasso carbon racer has the same reach as my Miyata tourer - 68cm, with the carbon h-bar about an inch below the seat. My Soma Smoothie has the same drop and reach as my tourer and all the bikes, after decades of tinkering with position, area effect for me. It's not that hard to set all this up, just a stem change usually.

Best of luck with your search.