A childhood belief about people

I remember being in second grade and listening to my mom and dad as they taked about a neighbor who had recently passed away from a "hard" attack. I went on for two years praying that I would never have a hard attack and die. In fourth grade I wrote a paper in my English class about a relative who had passed away from such an attack. My English teacher was a wonderful older woman who would never make fun of her students but she couldn't contain her chuckles as she read my paper. Needless to say she straightened me out that day. Now I hope I will never die of a "heart" attack!