The husband of an 82-year-old West Village man who died weeks after a neighbor pushed him to the pavement for bumping into him says the clash put an end to a romance that spanned more than half a century.

Dean Conover Whetzel hit his head on the pavement after 79-year-old neighbor Dana Escoffier allegedly knocked him to the ground on Hudson St. near W. 10th St., just around the corner from the apartment building where both men lived, around 1:30 p.m. Oct. 11, cops said. Escoffier was arrested for assault and harassment after walking away from the sprawled-out victim.

“It’s just shattered my world,” said the victim’s husband, Rodger Kepler. “I can’t believe that he’s gone.”

Medics took Whetzel to Bellevue Hospital , where he lay comatose for nearly a month, his skull fractured and br

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