My mother's cause of death, according to her Medical Certificate of Cause of Death, was congestive cardiac failure - the same as her favourite actress, Elizabeth Taylor (http://tinyurl.com/desp1na3) Just like Elizabeth Taylor my mother was 79 years old when she died, weighed less than 50kg and spent the last two weeks of her life on a respirator, fighting for every breath. I don't know if this is comforting or not - at the very least it's a reminder that in the end death makes no distinction of social status.