Prized ritual: an hour or so of coffee and talk.

Byline: Cara Solomon

Sep. 11--Home was hard there for a while, with his wife's health failing, and 52 years of marriage coming to an end. Lloyd Atkinson felt a little lost.

So his daughters made a suggestion: Go get your morning coffee at the Auburn Senior Center. It was only an hour, but it was a solid, stable hour, and in it, Atkinson always knew what would happen. He would walk in and find his old friends from the phone company, teasing and talking silly, in the world outside his wife. "It was good for me, I think," said Atkinson, 76, whose wife, Polly, died recently. "It took my mind off it for a little bit."

Any mental-health expert will tell you: Staying connected in old age is crucial. But men, as a rule, aren't that good at it. Staff at senior centers often have to coax them into committing to a wellness program, or a lecture series that lasts even a few…