The leading edge of the bell curve

I woke up to bad news.  A mate from uni days died of a heart attack leaving behind a wife and two small daughters.  He was 43.  My age.

I hadn't seen Nick in ten years and we were never close; a mate rather than a friend: -

Faces come and faces go in the ragged life you lead.
You just file them all away, to recall them when you need.
When a face just disappears you record it as a crime,
Against yourself,
Against the world.

"For a Short Time", Mick Thomas (Weddings Parties Anything)

In my 20's I lost a few of my generation to suicide and to motor accidents (a too common occurrence in rural Australia where alcohol and fatigue make for poor driving companions).  Freakishly I also lost three in plane crashes (two pilots, one passenger) and one who was my country's most famous AIDS death.

In my 30's I really lost no one of my own age.

Of course I won't be so lucky in my 40's.  This morning's text message was the leading edge of the bell curve; the first of an inevitable, increasing incidence of normal deaths.