very touching!
I was reading your thoughts and just repeat all the time: "yes! yes!" because I have the same worries and feelings very often.
Unfortunately I've similar experience:some years ago I discovered my classmate had died from a death desease which she hdn't been able to overcome. She was about 20..
It was a great shock for me. It turned my life upside down because we really live a fast life and just don't realize how quickly it can stop. We don't know why and when. We don't think. Don't appreciate every day we're alive, healthy and close to our beloved ones.
We must live every day as if it is the last one