I remember an episode of Scrubs where Dr. Cox was worried about his daughter getting sick. He does the whole overprotective parent thing and takes it way overboard. In the end JD gives him a speech about how he is going to worry more than other parents. He says that he will worry more because he's seen the worst. He knows of every potential horror story. I wish I could find a video of it but Google seems to be failing me.

I think my problem has been the opposite of yours. I remember being about the same age (8-9) when my mortality first struck me. The difference was that I was very ready to die. I was in church and we were talking about heaven. I found myself really wanting to die.

That feeling never left me, I always felt like I was ready to die. When I stopped believing in heaven so much (that's a whole different story) My feeling of wanting to die didn't go away. I've fought with suicidal thoughts throughout much of my life. Every time I got sick or something I would secretly hope that this would be the illness that would do me in.

Fighting that battle has made me pretty numb to death in general. I don't still want to die like I used to but I am ready for it. It's not something that scares me. I know that I am going to stop existing one day. It doesn't really bring up any emotions, at least not any I'm aware of. It's almost like blind acceptance.