Have you experienced a lot of people dying out of the blue?

[Selmaandpatty]

I was supporting a neighbour in his early 70s, helped him with his Alexa, occasionally grabbed a bit of shopping, that sort of stuff, as he'd recently had an operation.
Otherwise, he was fine, no serious illness, very independent and so on. He didn't drink or smoke.
His wife passed away last year unfortunately and I know he's been quite lonely. He'd often want you to stay and chat for longer, he was a really nice man.
I popped round at the weekend as the Alexa wasn't working.
I was told this morning he's died. I'm still waiting to find out how, but I'm so sad.
I don't see early 70s as elderly, it's not like he was 90+.
He wasn't frail at all, but there must be been something underlying we were not aware of.
I just keep thinking about him, I only saw him a few days ago and he was absolutely fine. It's just a massive shock, he asked me to stay for a cup of tea but I had things to do. I didn't know that'd be the last time I saw him.
Have you had many unexpected incidents like this?
It just scares me as anyone can leave us as any time, life is precious.

I disagree that that statement isnt cold.

My mum died at 55. Nothing sudden about it but it certainly disabused me of any notions that hitting 70 is a given.

I've also lost 3 of my form from secondary school. I'm only 40 so thats been quite sobering too

Probably the saddest incident... A guy at my husband's work, they were chatting all morning as they did every day. The guy popped out to the shops for lunch, collapsed and died in the street. We just couldn't process it all.

Also I started a new job and the team manager suddenly died late 30's from brain tumour I think. I then worked with a wonderful lady and one day she said she had pain in her neck. I told her to go to GP. A year later she died as was some rare form of cancer. I also moved to a different department and worked with someone else who died suddenly six months later. It was all very spooky.

I remember when relatives got to a certain age and a couple died in their early sixties. Even fri nds are starting to get seriously ill and just die within months. I remember how shocked I was how close death might be and I felt like running out if time even though I am stil quite young. I'm a bit more relaxed now and try to enjoy life more than I did before. I may or may not live to retirement age and I know that. I'm not scared of dying young suddenly. Id probably hardly realise. I'm more scared of illness and slow decline at any age.