While the murders of two policemen and their female relatives have made the headlines and got strong and immediate response from various sectors of the society, a story in yesterday's STAR underscored just how sudden death can be.

And that is without the loud bang of firearms.

On Wednesday, Debbie Squire, a member of the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF), got dressed to go to work. She complained of feeling ill and was taken to the Linstead Hospital, where the mother of five died. She was 32 years old.

Very traumatic

While we associate sudden death with violence, which is only too natural in a country with a staggering murder rate, the fact is that sudden death from illness is still very traumatic to the relatives of those who pass on. Squire's family and colleagues would be just as devastated as if she had met a bloody end.

In the normal course of things we do not expect persons in their early 30s to die so suddenly without evidence of severe illness. Still, it is advised that persons do regular medicals, to check for illnesses that show no obvious signs but are just as deadly - or even more so - than those which show obvious signs.

This sudden death should be a warning to all who take their health and seeing another sunrise for granted. Things do not have to be bloody and dramatic to be important and have an impact, and this is just such a case.