In this presentation, I will explore some of the “identity” questions that shaped the writing of my forthcoming book Other Endings: Organ Transplantation and the Burdens of Hope (McGill-Queen’s UP, February 2026). This book is about the death of my sister, who died waiting for a liver transplant 22 years ago. I describe how a hoped-for successful transplant narrative was part and parcel of a lineage of stories that constructed my sister’s identity as someone who had the will and fortitude to manage her illness. Drawing on the work of philosopher Paul Ricoeur who argues the life stories we tell ourselves are critical to our self-identity and the establishment of the “immutable substratum” we recognize as “durable properties of character” (1), I unpack how the life-saving survival discourse of transplantation intersected with a constructed sense of identity, and explore how my sister’s death played out like a story falling apart, which, in turn, felt like an undermining of her identity, an affront to the person that she was.

I spent more than 10 years trying to write about my sister’s death, significantly challenged by not knowing or understanding how to frame it. Paul Ricoeur’s stunning insight that the loss of a “narrative configuration” can amount to loss of “personal identity,” and that the disintegration of narrative can equate the disintegration of identity (1) became a profound source of inspiration, not only to write but also to come to terms with my grief, and why my sister’s death felt like such a profound erasure, an offence against an “immutable” aspect of who she was. She physically died, but on another level (the “lacking a narrative” level), she disintegrated.

I have a PhD in Health Information Science from Western University (2022). As a researcher, I am committed to advancing patient-centered care through rigorous qualitative inquiry that amplifies patient and caregiver voices to transform healthcare practice and policy. Currently, I am a postdoctoral fellow leading a CIHR funded study on kidney graft loss, investigating lived experiences in complex health contexts. I am also interested in creative approaches to centering patient narratives and the exploration of storytelling as a means of knowledge translation.

COI Disclosure: I do not have an affiliation (financial or otherwise) with any for-profit or not-for-profit organizations