News has reached me in the last few weeks of the death of two of my former Google colleagues. Both of them were software engineers. At least one died of an illness. It's not yet known what the other's cause of death was.
While I was still working there, two other colleagues died. One had a dodgy heart, the other committed suicide.
A couple of years ago, a bloke I had been instrumental in hiring also committed suicide.
That's five deaths that I, alone, know of; and two of those were within a matter of weeks. Who knows how many others have perished in parts of the company whose grapevine doesn't reach me?
It's enough to make one feel mortal.