Hi floo, only just seen this post.
Now you've said it, I feel you are right. At any rate, I understand what you mean. Though Hope only said the lady had died. However I think he was just reminding us that plenty of ordinary people, like ourselves, including a few unsung heroes, have died in the past year.
We all do know that! However it is natural for people to be sad, shocked, or even outraged when we hear of the demise of a high profile person, especially if the circumstances are terrible like the murder of Jo Cox. That fact is witnessed by the number of threads started about those who have died over the year.
Hope, a few days ago I received a letter from someone telling me about an old friend who had died not long ago. She was a lovely lady with whom I worked when I was young, before I was married. She was particularly good to the young me and we kept in touch, seeing eachother occasionally though not for a long time. I remember John & I going to her fiftieth wedding anniversary party but that was many years ago.
It was her daughter who wrote to me and I am going to write a reply this evening. I felt sad when I heard but the lady was just short of 92 and had had a varied and interesting life and lovely family, neither was she very ill for a long time, so good memories. Last year (I should say, "The year before last", Christmas 2015, but am mentally stuck in 2016 today!), she said she was fine and had a mobility scooter, having given up driving.
Comes to us all.