I think his living to 72 was living quite a long time for the beginning of the game. I know that when I was playing my very first village and didn't know much about the game, I had my first few elders die around 54 to 58. Since I'm not far away from that in r/l, that seemed so young to me. But actually fairly realistic if you think about it. In primitive societies, they have to work so much harder the life span is shorter. And yes, I'm sorry too. I lost two nine year olders near the beginning of my first game not realizing I shouldn't leave them on 2X overnight until the village is better established and I was pretty upset myself.