These things are linked.
Like people dying around Christmas or anniversaries very ill and very old people frequently choose a moent of passage.
RIP and sorry about your company. You were a part of 3 generations (Boomer parents, Gen X kids/parents and Millennial kids).
Pretty darn good.
Reminds me of this:
On February 13, 2000, the day following Schulz’s death, the last-ever new Peanuts strip ran in papers. The strip, which was three panels in length, began with Charlie Brown answering the phone with someone on the end presumably asking for Snoopy. Charlie Brown responded with “No, I think he’s writing.” The panel next to shows Snoopy sitting at his typewriter with the opening to a letter, addressed as “Dear Friends”. The final panel features a large blue sky background over which several drawings from past strips are placed. Underneath those drawings is a colorized version of Schulz’s January 3 strip, with almost the same note he wrote to the fans which reads as follows:
Dear Friends,
I have been fortunate to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for almost fifty years. It has been the fulfillment of my childhood ambition.
Unfortunately, I am no longer able to maintain the schedule demanded by a daily comic strip. My family does not wish “Peanuts” to be continued by anyone else, therefore I am announcing my retirement.
I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy... how can I ever forget them...
— Charles M. Schulz
My father: December 27th.
I was just about to fly to visit him in hospital.