Is it an end-life crisis? The trigger from my mid-life crisis hit when I was forty. I asked myself, do I want to live the rest of my life like this? Ultimately, the answer was ‘no.’ Apparently it is a trigger for the elderly, too. The disruption of life at that age and with decades of habits having been formed that will be broken, has to be way more stressful than at mid-life, though. Plus, at advanced age with its concomitant cardiac health concerns, it’s probably better to go quietly into that good night.
I would have tried to stay together for the kids and all, but when your spouse “drops out” of all connection and responsibility, you just can’t. And maybe I am supposed to be miserable being single, I’m sorry: I’m so glad I’m not living with a miserable crazy person who enjoys causing conflict and unpleasantness. I prefer my life to that of my trapped married friends, at least most of them.