There is nothing special about the moment an old man dies. The child that he once was died a long time ago not by suddenly ceasing to live but by growing up. The moment when the old man expires is no different from the slow deaths throughout his life. And this is proven by the couple of times ( remember the Orme boys and remember Sackett they are totally different people now than when you last interface with them and I mean totally! They are dead!)
This is a great antidote to you feeling sad there will be no longer be you in relationship to other things like the house or longing to live longer. It's just another death of one of many! That plus the Mark Twain quote that he was dead before he was born and didn't give a whit.
When we see animals in the wild we don't always notice that they are born and seldom when they die. We just may only notice occasions when we encounter them in between the beginning of life and the end with death.
Isn't it the same with people.. we have only have seen snapshots of each other which means all our lives are quite transitory! It may be a way to accept your own death better(or at least appreciate the time you or a creature is alive?
Death is strange and the way we react to it can be even yet stranger, whether we were on good terms or not so good terms with the one that has passed or rather we should say it like it is "they died".
There is always hope that we will see them again which is the spinning of many a tale about afterlife and the conditions of what you do and end up doing?(which I cannot imagine since I've only had an earth life with the pain and joys I can't imagine without a body how everything would be different).. It is the illusion of permanence that keeps us wanting to believe this..yet everything is in flux and changes just because of the laws of physics and entropy specifically.
I have mixed feelings about telling people about my terminal illnesses of course the heart but now the lungs with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis it seems if you're older and you have a terminal disease people start to distance you almost automatically not on purpose I just think it's a natural thing with people to distance themselves from you because death is the most taboo subject! Maybe you just should not tell people of any illnesses and when you drop dead let them be surprised!?!