I was in Dawnstar and a courier walked up to me and handed me the inheritance letter from one of the beggars in Whindhelm, Something once honored I believe. The last I had seen of him he was fine I gave him a coin and went on my way. Is it normal for some NPC's to just die even when you're no where near them? if it's supposed to happen it's kinda cool because it makes the world seem alive, but I haven't noticed any characters just dying on my other saves.

There are some civilian deaths that are supposed to happen, like but that beggar kicking the bucket seems pretty random to me. Maybe one of the guards was accidentally aggro'd by him and felled the poor fellow. Sad that you were his best friend, though, isn't it? I mean, Severio wrote me into his will because I sold some cabbages to him once. There sure are some lonely people in Skyrim.

You should probably tag this as a spoiler.

The game actually made me feel bad, like I wish I would have done more for the poor sob while he was alive. He thought the world of me apparently, and to me he was window dressing. Yes I realize the death of a random beggar on one save making me feel bad sounds kinda wimpy but that's immersion for ya.