Saying old aunt Ida "passed". I have a lot of family members that use this as a pleasant (?) way to say died. For some reason it just really annoys me. I work in cancer care and see lot of sick people who will die, and saying passed doesn't sugar coat it. They died!
This annoys me, too. Our culture has a very strange relationship with death. It's one of the only things that will, no matter what, happen to every single one of us, and yet we all act like we can somehow escape it. Changing the word you use for something doesn't change the thing itself. Better to accept it and live your life knowing it's coming. For example, I read somewhere that someone calculated how many more visits he will have with his parents, given that he visits twice a year and their remaining life expectancy is about 10 years. Kinda puts things in perspective.
Most people these days have never even seen a dead body (except maybe at a viewing, after its been all cleaned up, makeup applied, etc.), but not very long ago, the body was often kept in the home just before the funeral. Stretched out on the dining room table, even. It used to be common for children to die, and for adults to die in places other than a hospital, and while of course I wouldn't wish for any of that to come back, we've very much institutionalized death... to the point where it's almost not even real for most people. People are shocked and horrified when Grandma dies at age 98.
To relate this to MMM, this means too few people have financial plans for after they die. Families end up fighting over what's left, no one can afford the funeral, the "correct" heir gets nothing, etc. And people don't live their lives with intention, since they somehow believe they have an infinite amount of time.