Usage of when The text below is an excerpt from an obituary for a Syrian child actor who died at 14. The article traced his career as a child actor who had played the father of a household; then, tall and no longer a child at the age of 14, he had ambition to be a serious actor, when he abruptly died. I am unsure of my understanding of the second sentence bracketed between []. 1. He was mourned as the "little hero" who had made Aleppo laugh. [His hopes had been for much bigger things, when he was really a man.] Q. What function does the [when] in the second sentence have? Considering that there is comma before the [when], I assumed that it may be used as a relative pronoun as in this sentence "I was about to leave, when there was a knock on the door." But I'm not certain. Thank you for reading to this end. Perhaps you would explain. (You can read the original article here: https://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21704758-sit-com-star-aleppo-was-14-obituary-qusai-abtini-was-killed-july-8th)