Press

Five years ago, my daughter Mallory died. She had just turned 25. The coroner recorded her cause of death as cystic fibrosis, a disease that inflicts severe damage to the lungs and other organs. In fact, what killed her was a bacterial infection that had grown resistant to antibiotics.

Making a documentary that doubles as a final testament is no easy task. But with access to family members, doctors, personal reflections and hospital footage (which includes a surgery), “Salt in My Soul” poignantly reconstructs the life of Mallory Smith, who received a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis at 3 years old.

Frank Buckley interviews author and publicist Diane Shader Smith, who’s daughter, Mallory, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and authored the posthumously published book “Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life.”

Mallory Smith was a toddler in 1995 when doctors finally diagnosed her persistent cough and runny nose: cystic fibrosis. Life expectancy with the disease at the time was between 25 and 30 years.

Intimacy pervades the moving documentary “Salt in My Soul,” based on the posthumously published journals of Mallory Smith, a vibrant young woman with cystic fibrosis. Smith chronicled her experience with both raw honesty and real eloquence, and director Will Battersby refuses to cut away from more painful moments of the disease and its effects on Smith and her family.

Mallory Smith was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was only 3-years old. Despite daily life interrupted by intensive treatments and more than 70 hospitalizations, she went on to become an excellent athlete and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford, as well as an environmental journalist. Most of all, Mallory had a remarkable spirit and resilience. She lived life more fully than most of us ever do, knowing that she might die at any moment.

Mallory Smith’s posthumously published book, Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life, is an insightful and moving account of one young woman’s experience living with a chronic, often invisible, illness. Much of what Mallory included in her journal was too difficult for her to share with family and friends while she was alive, yet she hoped that her writing would one day “offer insight for people living with, or loving someone with, chronic illness.”

The word from the doctors came early this week: They had tried one cocktail of antibiotics after another, but Mallory Smith’s fever and chill and chest rattle were only getting worse. They were out of options.

The word from the doctors came early this week: They had tried one cocktail of antibiotics after another, but Mallory Smith’s fever and chill and chest rattle were only getting worse. They were out of options.