People in their 60s with no close friends didn’t lose those friendships through any failure of character — the friendships were structurally maintained by a workplace, a school run, a neighborhood, or a marriage, and when the structure ended the friendships ended with it, and what looks like a personal deficit is actually the silent collapse of an architecture nobody told them was holding their social life up
On Saturday morning, Margaret stands at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee that has gone cold while she was looking at her phone. There are no messages. The calendar for the weekend is empty, except for a dentist appointment on Monday she has already moved twice. She is six…