Coped with fellow advanced in years (7)
I believe the answer is:
managed
'coped' is the definition.
('manage' can be a synonym of 'cope')
'with fellow advanced in years' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'fellow' becomes 'man' (I've seen this before).
'advanced in years' becomes 'aged' (I've seen this before).
'man' next to 'aged' is 'MANAGED'.
(Other definitions for managed that I've seen before include "Supervised (staff)" , "Controlled, was in charge of" , "Coped" , "Contrived" , "Ran, administered" .)