I’m 56 and will be changing jobs soon so I signed up for a month of Been Verified last week to do a background check on myself and soon discovered that I had a month to check backgrounds on anybody I wanted, so I checked out everyone I could think of. Bad idea, five people that I had close relationships with years ago are now confirmed dead. A college buddy of mine died in motorcycle accident 7 years ago. My girlfriend from the mid-90’s died of cancer last Christmas. Another former girlfriend of mine apparently committed suicide 6 years ago. A good friend from the late 80’s overdosed last March. And my ex wife died of breast cancer last May. Saturday and Sunday totally sucked as I made phone calls to confirm that the information was correct and was told details I really didn’t need to know. 
I just found out that an old girlfriend has died a couple of years ago. She was several years younger than me so it was kind of shocking.
Googling around I found a photo video montage of her life on the funeral home website. It was strange to see how her life had gone. She got married, had kids, grandkids, etc. She went through midlife, got old and gray. Just a very strange thing to see all at one time like that.
That’s rough, Si Amigo. It’s like they all died in one weekend for you. Sorry to hear it
On Monday I read an article that mentioned someone with an unusual last name. I had only ever heard of one person with that name before and he was a kid I went to middle school with. He wasn’t a close friend, I mainly remembered him for his odd last (and first) name and the fact that–at the time–his was the only family in the class who actually owned a VCR! and we all thought he was rich. So idly wondering what he had been up to since middle school, I google his name, and the first hit is his obituary where he died this January at 43.
It was quite overwhelming. Part of the search results linked you to their relatives and had contact information like phone numbers, emails and Facebook accounts; so it was surprising easy to get in touch with people. And I was struck with the detailed information I recieved, because obviously these people have already gone through the grieving process and just kind of matter of factually told me details I would never had expected to hear at a funeral. :eek:
My very first boyfriend died on my birthday last year. Kinda strange. I didn’t go to service cause his Mother never liked me, didn’t want to be a disrupter. I did see his widow at a school event and talked to her about him for awhile, she was still in early stages of her grief process , so I cut it short.
It sucks, yes.
I recently learned that an old friend of a friend passed away last year. Apparently he drank himself to death, utterly alone, and no one found the body for quite some time.
He was one of the most talented and charismatic people I’ve known. A shame, and a colossal waste.
In the past three months three people I have known for 40 or 50 years have died. All three were a year or two younger than me. I wouldn’t have given a plugged nickel for the chances of outliving any of them when I had my heart attack 52 years ago (two of them I have known for 55 years). One of them was coauthor of two of the three books I have published and a very good friend. Of the thirteen people I have had joint publications with, six are dead.
Very depressing.
The Grim Reaper is sometimes hard to ignore! 
Within 5 years of graduating high school, I learned the fate of 5 of my “friends.” *
Two died in traffic accidents, both on motorbikes. Separate incidents.
One was murdered by his live in girl friend. Shot in his own front yard. A hedonistic mix of drug use and sleeping around added to two very volatile tempers.
One was in jail, with a long sentence, for various assaults and robberies. He was a pretty lose canon in school, tho, so that wasn’t a huge surprise.
The big surprise was the guy who slacked off the most during school got into his uncle’s real estate business, made a ton of money in one amazing super deal, and decided to start a life in politics by running for office, something like city council or whatever. Last I heard, he was still a minor big wig in local politics.
*quotation marks because of not being very close after school, tho we were all buds while at school