verbs - He dies when he is



Teaching English for adults we were reading a story. In the story of a man appears this sentence " He dies when he is 102 years old" An ESL adult asked me: Shouldn't be that sentence in the past,... when he was 102? I said No, it's OK the way it is;but I struggled to give him the reason. Could somebody help?


There are some questions about the use of would with the historical present on this site:



But this question is about why it is possible to use the present simple in this particular example. It does not ask about the use of would with the present simple.


I wasn't born here so English is my second language too!!!




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