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Abstract

This performance text explores how people “craft liveable truths” after a cancer diagnosis. Interviews with 26 members of Gilda’s Club, a meeting place for people whose lives have been touched by cancer, serve as the data source for the study. Weaving together excerpts from the interviews, a composite character named Henry is created to explore stories of diagnosis, changes in relationships, and the healing nature of shared experiences. Henry’s interactions with his doctor, daughter, and “cancer friends” reveal his struggle for dignity, hope, and transcendence throughout his cancer journey. This story is about living, not dying, with cancer. It is simultaneously a text about emotions (fear, happiness, friendship, anxiety, sadness, and optimism) and the institutional processes that shape them. The text invites a discussion of “emotion work” and institutional thinking fostered by support groups such as Gilda’s Club.

Keywords

narratives of illness healing and mortality complementary therapy emotion work institutional thinking

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Living With Cancer? Come As You Are

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