What does "fall away" mean? Is it something like "fade away" or "go away"?
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
"Fall away" in this context means to diminish or disappear. Steve Jobs says "things just fall away in the face of death" to mean that those "things" are hardly important when you consider how important life is. Ex: Work and responsibilities fall away in the face of death. Ex: The quality of the teaching at this school has fallen away.