Marie de Hennezel was born in France in 1946. She started her career as a psychologist working with women in distress and with cases of advanced psychosis. In 1987, she joined the staff of the first palliative care unit in a Paris hospital for people with terminal illnesses, where she gathered the experiences she describes in this book. She founded the Bernard Dutant Association: AIDS and Re-Empowerment in 1990, in memory of a friend who died of AIDS, and gives lectures on approaching the end of life and seminars on accompanying the dying. She lives in Paris with her husband and children. From the Trade Paperback edition.