The person building a new life may need invitations that fit its smaller openings.

A life under reconstruction has narrow openings: an hour between other things, a nearby place, an early evening, a plan that can be cancelled without drama. Standard invitations do not fit through them, so the person declines, and after a few declines people stop asking, which gets read as wanting to be left alone. Often the opposite is true.

If someone you know is rebuilding after an illness, a loss, or a move, offer something small and specific: a walk on Saturday morning, a coffee near their house. Say the offer stands whether or not this one works. Keep asking after a no.