During an extended period of travel last year, my husband and I lent our house in the Ozarks to an older couple who were having work done on their own house.

We returned after a month away to a spotless house and two hostess gifts. But there was also a distinctive smell in the air: slightly stale and sweet, like the musty first whiff of strawberries in a cardboard box.

I wiped countertops and mopped floors. Still, the odor remained. Not terrible but strange and cloyingly human. Late that night I guiltily googled, “Do old people smell?”

The answer I found was yes. Then no. And maybe …

I mentioned my question to a group of women writers, ranging from 40 to 70, and got drastically different responses. The younger women said yes, there’s an odor associated with aging. But to the older women it sounded like ageism and a few took offense.