Island Man: You need to come to grip with the fact that it's not real. It's just a figure of speech. I know you know that on a conscious level. But do you know it on a subconscious level? You'll never lose your life - no one loses their life. You only lose the life of loved ones that die. Only the living lose lives. Losing something means having the experience of being deprived of it. The dead experience nothing therefore they don't lose anything. Death doesn't harm the dead. It only harms the living - those who lose loved ones in death and those who needlessly worry about their own future death because of the psychological torture of the figurative phrase "losing your life".
I guess technically you are right, in that once dead there is no feeling of loss. However, there might be a sense of great loss before that moment of death, and I was referring to losing this life that I built and love. I will know that I'm leaving it behind. I will know that I'm leaving people behind that care about me and will miss me dearly. I will know that my chance of going on to try new things is over with, well, except that I get to try out death after having lived. I think I get what you're saying on a philosophical level, or maybe just semantics over word usage, but it doesn't make me feel better about those moments leading up to death, particularly if I get to grow old and die and it isn't something sudden. Or maybe I misunderstood or just disagree, but I think I get you.