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When I agreed to write a review of Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life by Mallory Smith I wasn’t thinking about that part. So, when the book arrived and there on the cover was a picture of a very alive-looking person doing a headstand, I was hit with a gut-punch realizing I’d promised to write a review about a book by a person who was already dead.

Californian Mallory Smith, who loved the Hawaiian Islands, died at age 25 from an incurable disease that takes its average patient by age 37, but her words continue to speak to people around the world.

Mallory Smith lived with Cystic Fibrosis until the age of 25. She had a passion and talent for writing and the smart sense to keep a journal and document her life from the young age of nine.

MyOpa, my father’s father, survived the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. He also survived my dad’s death. He told me that he suffered more from losing a son than the concentration camp. I’m unhappy to say that I share the experience of losing a child with my Opa and Diane Shader Smith.

Salt in My Soul is a powerful, heartbreaking and inspiring look at Mallory Smith’s life.

A truth binds the lives of two women who have never met. One sees into the other’s soul through her writing — for both women, cystic fibrosis (CF) has been their greatest blessing and most dreadful curse.

Instead of crumbling under the pressures of an insurmountable disease, Mallory Smith (ΦBK, Stanford University) utilized her diagnosis of cystic fibrosis to both advocate for those suffering like her and encourage responsible stewardship of the environment.