Death can be a profound change, but to me it is on a similar level as losing your house, losing your job, losing all of your money, losing your freedom unjustly, being the center of attention in a situation where you are entirely alone without support and you are accused of heinous things you did not do, unexplained divorce to a small child, etc.
In short, I think it sits on a list of more or less equally traumatic things involving extraordinary loss and extreme cognitive dissonance.