Jay wasn't obese, didn't smoke, and didn't drink excessively. While he never married, he dated the same woman for the last several years of his life, a relationship that lasted until his death today. Jay was far from an athlete, in fact he was pretty sedentary, but he wasn't overweight, nor did he have any outstanding risk factors marking him for an early death. About a year and a half ago Jay was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The survivability of this disease is very low, and he knew his chances of beating it weren't good.
Pancreatic cancer is fairly rare.
It's one of those diseases from which you can't protect yourself with healthy living and exercise. Jay stayed in pretty good spirits until the last couple of months. I never heard him complain once about the chemo, or any of the other miseries associated with having cancer. Jay continued to come to the local bar until recently. But two weeks ago he fell in his apartment.