Care s, I agree with tampa Tom. An easy way to bring up the C-PAP mask wearing is with something you could smile over. A friend of mine told me this when she heard i was using the mask/ C-PAP machine.
She said when her son saw her with the mask on he told her " Beam me up Scotty" and that she looked funny wearing it. Tell him you wear one just for sleeping, but not other times. You could say that you wondered if you look just as funny wearing it. He just might want to see what you look like with it and if you act like you think you might look funny, then he might join you in laughter and the situation could become an unimportant issue between you other than how important he felt it was for you to wear it. If the two of you can laugh over how funny we must all look with the mask, then you have a good chance of also handling future problems easier. Even though we need to take our sleep apnea seriously, humor can make it easier.
Good Luck. I am also a Widower who started using the C-PAP face mask since last April-- just finished my first year. Hubby never saw it on me as never knew what was causing my snoring or my stop breathing night epsidoes till after I lost him (July `02). Went for an Ocean week-end vacation with a couple daughters in Fall of of `03 and was told how loud I was snoring. That reminded me of the snoring and stop breathing times my hubby had spoke so much about- so the following April I finally went to find out the cause.