How can coming to terms with the inevitability of death affect the way we choose to live our lives in adulthoo?

I don't remember how old I was when I realized that some day I would die but I know that it was many years ago. I don't think it really came home to me until my grandmother died five years ago. She had always been around and it was easy to believe she always would be. When she died I started to think about my life and to ask myself if I was happy. I examined my relationships with my own parents (my father anyway) and asked how my children felt about me. If I was to die tomorrow, who would miss me, cry for me, mourn my absence as I mourned for my grandmother. Now I try to live the best way I know and I work at making sure when I am gone my loved ones will say I had a positive influence on them and others. Death may be inevitable but the memories we leave behind of the person we were can make our death easier on those left behind.