Death Can Come in Any Situation

Dick Shawn was an American actor. He excelled in making people laugh—in films and on stage. On the night of April 17, 1987, he was in a theatre in La Jolla in California, where he was acting and making people laugh. There were some 600 people sitting in the hall enjoying themselves. All of a sudden, Mr. Shawn suddenly fell on his face on the stage. People thought it was a joke, part of the acting.

Mr. Shawn lay on the floor in this condition. Then, his son Adam got suspicious. He called a doctor. The doctor immediately advised that Mr. Shawn be taken to hospital. In the hospital, doctors examined him and later announced that he had died. The immediate cause of his death was a heart-attack. He was at that time 57 years old.

In this world, some people cry and die, and some others laugh and die. For some, death comes when they are in a bad condition, for others, when they are hale and hearty, fit and fine. Someone dies seated on the bare earth, someone else on the stage of a theatre and yet others while ensconced on a throne. Death is a universal phenomenon—it happens to everyone, no matter what their condition and status in society. Yet, humans are most forgetful of this biggest reality.