[pkaler]

I can add one more anecdote. My grandmother passed away before my first semester final exams in my first year. My parents didn't actually tell me until after my exams finished.

The thing is that she passed away in India. My grandmother would spend summers in Canada and winters in India. She passed away the same week a cousin married.

My hypothesis is that stressful things happen at the end of seasonal quarters. Final exams just happen to be one of those things. Flu season also happens to be December/January. Allergy season is around May/June.

I did a quick Google search but I can't find any information regarding death rate and monthly distribution. I would assume that it is evenly distributed but I wouldn't be surprised if the assumption was incorrect.