Aw! I didn't know Ian Tyson died. I remember his show 'The Ian Tyson Show' and Ian Tyson and the Great Speckled Bird. I was at Ricks College when Four Strong Winds, sung by Neil Young, was on the radio and would bring on some mild, yet proud homesickness into my persons. I always loved that song. A southern Albertan here and proud of it.
Dave, I'm in my mid-60s, and it's a very weird thing to see public figures that have been a part of most of my adult life dying off. I think we tend to lose track of how old they are/were, because we've viewed them as being (more or less) contemporaries.
It's also odd to see friends and family sometimes dying in their 70s. Yes, it's a normal age for death, but at the same time you don't expect it. My mother, who died just short of age 80, outlived most of her friends and siblings. I can't even imagine that, but increasingly, it's my reality.
You feel like you are just getting the hang of life, and suddenly, the exit door is within view.