Learning From Stories that Dying People Tell

Cherie Henderson PhD on taking narrative practice beyond healthcare

“The day I die, the day I die
Where will we be?
The day I die, the day I die
Where will we be?”

Day I Die lyrics, - The National

Cherie Henderson PhD: Redefining the Academic and Expanding Narrative Practice

Many, including Cherie Henderson herself, define her as “an academic.” This spring, she graduated with a PhD in Communications from Columbia University. She holds a Narrative Medicine master’s from Columbia as well, where she has been an associate faculty member, a postgraduate fellow and is a forum leader;..

But as Cherie embarks on a new chapter of her life, she’s been thinking about this moniker, “academic,” and what it means to her. A former journalist for The Miami Herald and Associated Press, survivor of advanced cancer, mom, wife and a church deacon in Manhattan, she’s exploring what it means to blend these identities toward innovating her next.

What Cherie is certain about is that all those roles have helped her develop a level of lived experience, creativity and a passion to create new ways to expand the work of narrative practice in the world. Currently she is pursuing several opportunities to employ the three pillars of narrative practice philosophy – attention, representation, and affiliation – born and nurtured through her academic work.

Like many others who have dived deep into Narrative Medicine, she’s determined to find ways to improve healthcare, engender compassion, and change lives. Here, Cherie shares several of the new, and inspiring, roads she is traveling. 

On listening to and learning from the stories that dying people tell

Cherie’s doctoral dissertation focused on close reading end-of-life narratives to see what they could reveal about how our culture thinks about death and dying. During her research she read, saw and listened to dozens and dozens of these stories in places as varied as books, film, Instagram, and Twitter.

“I realized when I was teaching that the triumph narrative didn’t account for these narratives of death and dying, because people with terminal illness by definition are not going to triumph over their illness, so these stories needed a different lens,” Cherie says.

A phrase that became especially useful in thinking about how these stories worked was “living dyingly,” which was coined by the late writer Christopher Hitchens when he faced Stage IV esophageal cancer and his own mortality.

“The term evokes the tension of knowing that death will come soon but for now still being very much alive,” Cherie says. “In many of these stories, the narrators’ diagnoses changed their perception of time, because they knew how limited it was. It changed the way they lived – because as of then they were still living.”

Cherie is now exploring how to marry her journalism experience with her narrative research to write a book that shares these ideas with the dying and the people who care for them, both loved ones and healthcare professionals. It would raise the awareness of the importance of giving space to the dying to tell the stories of their lives.

On booking it

Cherie is also developing a pilot project to launch narrative practice at the New York Public Library with Narrative Medicine founder Rita Charon, M.D. PhD. Dr. Charon is a general internist and literary scholar who originated the field of narrative medicine. She is Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics and Professor of Medicine at Columbia University.

“I’m not a healthcare provider, but I see so many ways to take what we’ve learned through narrative medicine and bring it into practice in the real world,” says Cherie. “Obviously people at the library understand the importance of narrative very well, and they already offer all kinds of outreach programming. I’m really excited about where this might go.”

The library project is inspired by work Cherie has done with Columbia. For the last three years, Cherie has hosted Volvox, a monthly Columbia University alumni speaker series that features graduates who are using their education in innovative ways. Sessions have featured clinicians, authors, and other practitioners sharing insights related  to clinical education and resilience to patient experience and social justice.

On creating a church community for learning and reflection

Narratives have also informed the volunteer work that Cherie does at the Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan, where she is a deacon. During the pandemic, she led online narrative medicine sessions to shore up the sense of community lost during the lockdown, and when she worked on fundraising, she made sure to highlight members’ stories about why they loved the church.

For her latest project, Cherie came up with the idea of a yearlong “Big Read” of Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead, a Pulitzer Prize-winning retelling of David Copperfield set in current-day Appalachia. Community members will meet after they read the whole book then share in reflection, learning, and action. Besides discussing the book itself, the community will use its themes to guide programming for the rest of the church year, with lectures, film screenings, workshops, field trips and more.

The Mindworks Questionaire

1. What is something people might not expect to learn about you? My husband and I have seen the band The National more than 30 times, whether the shows were a subway ride or even a walk from her New York apartment. We’ve also traveled as far as Colorado, Utah, and even England and Portugal. “I find a unique bliss in the intensity of hearing the intricate music and literary lyrics live alongside other devoted listeners.” “I used to hear about people doing this kind of thing and think, ‘Who does that?’ But then I was like, ‘why not?’ It’s a great way to be a tourist,” says Cherie. “I never ever get tired of the music because I’m always finding new things in it – I’ll hear a song live and it will suddenly reveal itself in a new way and I’ll have it on repeat for a month.”

   *Close readers of her dissertation will find a nod to the band in her acknowledgments, alongside another for local radio station WFUV, which her husband nicknamed “Radio Cherie” for the uncanny way its playlist mirrors her own.

   2. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Being intellectually engaged and being creative. I love hosting Volvox and learning more about the big picture of narrative practice, and I’m now treating myself to watercolor lessons. It’s a great break from being absorbed in my studies.

   3. What are some of your favorite books and authors? “There are so many, but here are a few. I’d probably give you a completely different list next week,” says Cherie. Paul Harding. She and Marsha Hurst taught his Pulitzer Prize–winning debut novel, Tinkers, in the so-called Death class in Columbia’s Narrative Medicine program, and she just finished his most recent book This Other Eden. “I don’t think anyone writes better than he does,” she says. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. “I had studied the Holocaust in school like everyone else, but it wasn’t until I read this book in my 20s that I understood how it could have happened,” Cherie says. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. “I must have given away 20 copies of this as gifts over the years. He has so much wisdom for anyone who is caring for someone who is dying or who will die themselves – which is all of us, of course.”