The Hilariously Inauspicious "Expression"

I just bumped into an international student friend of mine who is Iranian-Italian doing a Masters in IT/Science. I remembered that when I first met him at the start of the year one of our conversations went like this:

Amir: Hi Alice!
Me: Hey! How are you doing?
Amir: Not too bad, you always look really busy. We should catch up!
Me: Really? But yes, we should catch up!
Amir: Yea, the other day I saw you and I was going to say 'hi' to you but you had already passed away.
Me: *stunned for a few moments and then bursts out laughing*

This is us at dragon boat!

I am happy to report that Amir does know what "passed away" actually means now.

For those who are reading this from a non-English speaking background, "passed away" is a polite way of saying someone has died. However my friend here had combined two words for their literal meaning and thought that it means I had already "passed by"/"gone away".