"What is my worth if I can no longer work?"

Transparency notice: Michèle Vallenthini is a member of the board of the Lëtzebuerger Journal.

Michèle Vallenthini welcomes us into her home, which also serves her office. When you enter from your grey everyday life, you are immediately immersed in a different world, because Michèle herself almost competes with her interior in radiance. It's her own little circus tent: posters hang on the walls, animal figurines are dotted about, stripes and plants adorn the room – everything is colourful. It is no coincidence that she has decorated her home in this way. "It reflects my past because I worked in the circus for a number of years. There I realised how important the environment is, at work and for mental health in particular."

The fact that she ended up in the circus was probably more a series of apparent misfortunes that would turn out to be great luck. At the time, Michèle Vallenthini was a journalist at Tageblatt. A colleague was supposed to interview the director of the Roncalli Circus, Bernhard Paul, that day. But he was ill, so she had to stand in. Despite a lack of preparation, the interview went really well. "We talked for ages, and I was so happy." Until she arrives at the editorial office and – worst-case scenario – realises that the recording device hasn't worked. But she is solution-orientated: "So I set about writing a portrait of the man based on everything I still had in my head and the quotes I had written down."