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This article explores how the death of the elderly is represented by examining the death notices of 3,160 people aged 65 and over that were published in two daily newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland. Notices no longer merely announce death, but have become more extensive since the 1950s, providing information about the death and the dead person. The words chosen by the family to announce that an elderly relative has passed away reveal several social norms. Using textual statistics, our analyses show that representations of death differ according to age, sex, religion, and place of death. Thus, a plural vision of death in old age emerges, one that goes beyond a simple opposition between good and bad death. The age criterion is important, reiterating the distinction found in old age between the young-old and the oldest-old. We identify what is perceived as an “unfair” age and a “normal” age to die. The death notices document the use of a vocabulary that associates death in the third age with the fight against disease, justifying an early departure. On the other hand, when the deceased leaves us at the age of 85 or older, the vocabulary borrows figures and metaphors from the lexical field of sleep, such as “fell asleep,” or “fell asleep peacefully.”