I made it to 29 without any deaths close to me ( great aunts died that I didn't really know) and my close family felt secure, maybe even somehow we were special somehow, but then my dad died at 59 of a heart attack (in a palace in Paris at a conference on temperature standards of all places). Was a shock. Now I'm 50, most of the older generation of my family are dead. I think I have handled death quite well so far, but I know others who still struggle decades later. However, I'm really not sure how well I'd handle one of my kids dying.