In my life, I’ve known many such men — broken, decaying, disillusioned, and disconnected. Oddly, I’ve never known an elderly woman in the same situation. Your story has me wondering once again why men age with so little grace. Is it because they put the highest value on career accomplishments, money accumulation, and sports accolades, neglecting the relationships that most women cultivate like herbs in a garden? Is it because they carry anger, disappointment, and sorrow with no outlet that they can accept and utilize without feeling unmanly? Is it because their physicality is so central to their self-worth that the aging process robs them of their only definition of self?