Three months ago, I sat across from Caroline Klein in the kitchen nook of her Salt Lake City home. Klein, the chief communications officer of Smith Entertainment Group, was finally ready to share her story of living with Stage 4 proximal-type epithelioid sarcoma.
Her story would touch me and many of our readers.
On Friday, Aug. 22, a LinkedIn post written by Klein was posted by her family informing the public that Klein had died.
“If you’re reading this, it’s because my lungs have taken their final breath, and my soul is on a thoughtful search for its next great adventure,” Klein wrote.
“Utah lost a legend yesterday in the passing of Caroline Klein,” Smith Entertainment Group chairman and CEO Ryan Smith posted on X Friday morning. “She was truly one of a kind. Ash and I and the rest of the SEG team will miss her every single day. She left us a post to read after her passing, a lasting gift and part of her wisdom. Working with CK was a highlight of my career. Her presence — and all she shared — Miss you already CK."
She had just turned 40 in May — something her doctor told her back in December that he was unsure would happen.
In June 2023, after nearly a year of intense back and leg pain, a doctor discovered a tumor on Klein’s sciatic nerve. She was informed there was a 95% chance it was benign. Two months later, she underwent surgery to remove it.
Her pain disappeared with the tumor, but two weeks passed, and she found out that the tests came back positive for cancer.
In February 2024, she learned the cancer had spread to her lungs and was now terminal. Doctors gave her one to nine years to live.
“I took my terminal cancer diagnosis, and I saw it not as a death sentence, but a license to live,” Klein told me. “My terminal diagnosis does not mean that my life is over. It will be soon. We don’t know when, but it gave me this refreshed attitude to just live every day like there might not be a tomorrow.”
When I left her home after our interview, I experienced what Ashley Smith, co-owner of the Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth, would later tell me about Klein.
“Caroline has really made an effort to care about me and showcase things about me,” Smith said. “She really is great at showcasing whoever is surrounding her.”
I felt so uplifted and seen after just an hour of speaking with Caroline. I felt like she really cared about me, someone she barely knew.
While driving from her home back to the Deseret News office, I reflected on what I learned from Klein and what it would mean to “live like Caroline.” I later learned that Ashley Smith had adopted the phrase “What would Caroline do?” as a sort of life motto.
Following her diagnosis, Klein herself had adopted the questions “Why not?” and “Why wait?” as her personal mottos.
What I’ve learned from Klein is to fill my life with the people and things that bring me joy, to try new things, to truly experience the world, to uplift others and to not delay doing any of the above.
So far, I’ve started small. I enrolled in a class to try a new hobby. I started planning a trip to Bryce Canyon like she recommended. (She loved hiking, especially in national parks.)
Neither of those compare to hiking Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan like Klein did, but maybe I’ll get there someday. Even if I don’t, I’ll find other ways to experience and enjoy the wonders the world has to offer and to live my life to the fullest.
One of the reasons I wanted to interview Klein was because I thought many people, including myself, needed a reminder that our time on Earth is short — and we don’t know when it will end. So we should live each day we’ve been gifted to the fullest.
Though originally hesitant to share her story, Klein was happy to serve as that reminder, and I’m so grateful she did.
“I personally don’t think my story is anything special,” she said. “I hope that people don’t need a story like mine to be living life the way they want to or the way that would bring them a lot of joy. But again, if there’s one good thing that can come out of this, then that makes me happy.”
Klein’s story will always stay with me, and for the rest of my life, I will excitedly tell people about the person I got to know who, after an hourlong conversation, changed my life.
In honor of her memory, we could all benefit from reflecting on what it means to live like Caroline.
“I want everyone to remember me for the way I lived, not the way I died,” she wrote. “And with that in mind, will you do me a favor? Keep asking yourself ‘why not?’ and ‘why wait?’ and pursue all of your dreams with an unapologetic determination. We only have one life to live, and it’s on you to live it to the fullest. So please, try to see every day as a license to LIVE, not just pass the time.”