Shell

Larry Blake got old and ruined his health trying to please his difficult wife, and he utterly failed. She wasn't ever satisfied by nature, but also non-expressive, never vulnerable, and comfortably cold.

Blake got a stent in a blocked artery at 63. It slowed him up, but his deep sadness was a worse sort of blockage, with no treatment option. Blake knew he was still alive, no matter how he felt thru out the day and night.

Walking in the morning, he saw a side-shadow following. He felt the hard cement beneath his shoes, so there was no doubt. 

But, the disembodied shell soon became the man, and the man disappeared into the ghostly afternoon, no matter, nothing personal, like Larry Blake's life.