“It was a meaningless existence, really, just like he was, meaningless.” 

Decker’s family provides the psychological stability he needs to function as a manufactured savant. His wife and daughter are his only anchors. When he loses his family, he feels he has also lost all reason to go on living. 

“The hit was the only thing he had never remembered. Ironic, since it was the catalyst for his never forgetting anything else.” 

The defining moment of Decker’s life is the accident on the football field that altered his brain. It changed his personality and his relationship to reality, yet he can’t remember it. 

“He was getting by, barely. But barely was all he needed. Because barely was all he was now.” 

This comment is another reference to Decker’s assessment of his diminished chances of survival. Without his family to ground him, he isn’t even sure that he exists.