For a long time, Christiane zu Salm was considered a high-flyer in the German media sector. She was a successful and controversial manager at colorful and strident private television stations.
Death came very close to her at an early age. When she was six, her younger brother died before her eyes in an accident. Many years later she had a near-death experience in an avalanche accident. Experiences like those led to her decision to become a palliative care provider. She finished six months of training in a hospice in her chosen home city of Berlin, In the course of her volunteer work, she is regularly confronted with death. A mother of two, she says those confrontations have taught her a lot about life. Through this work, she became an author and asked people whom she cared for as they were dying to dictate their own obituaries to her. What those people have left as a legacy is neither money nor goods, but thoughts that can teach their bereaved friends and relatives and the book's readers quite a lot: not to let fear rule their lives as much as it does, and to be truer to themselves.