![]() ![]() She wanted them to see the similarities between Kunta Kinte and Spirit, how they both fought for their freedom. The last time Skloot had seen Deborah, she’d made Skloot and Davon watch Roots and Spirit, an animated film about a wild horse, back to back. Henrietta Lacks Book Author Remembers Last Seeing Deborah It was just a few days after Mother’s Day. He’d found her in bed, smiling, dead from a heart attack. About a week before, Sonny had gone over to check on Deborah when she didn’t answer a call from Davon. Immediately Skloot knew that Deborah had died. ![]() She announced herself, and Sonny said that he’d been searching for her phone number. ![]() Clover’s disappearance was too important to wait, so Skloot called Sonny. When Skloot returned from Clover, she called Deborah again and found her voicemail box full. ![]() In 2006, when Deborah’s divorce was finalized, she had no money in her checking account, and her entire monthly income was $742: $732 from social security and $10 in food stamps. In the years since the baptism, the Lackses had endured considerable hardship: Sonny had a quintuple bypass without insurance, a surgery that landed him $125,000 in debt Zakariyya had been expelled from his assisted-living facility and a Section Eight housing project, the latter because he struck a woman with a forty-ounce beer bottle and Deborah had divorced Pullum and moved into an assisted-living facility herself. Skloot hadn’t been in touch with Deborah for months, though Skloot had called her a number of times. She collected some of the debris from the vanished houses to give to Deborah. All of a sudden she realized what had happened: The town had been razed. When she got there, she found she was disoriented-the road into town seemed longer than it had the last time she visited. In 2009, eight years after Deborah’s stroke, Skloot drove to Clover. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Book: Deborah’s Final Days The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks book tells the story that touches all of them. Skloot did just that, gaining confidence as the congregation answered her speech with “Amen” and “Hallelujah.” When Pullum took back the microphone, he said that Henrietta’s story was no longer about her children, but her children’s children-the baby being baptized that day, Davon, and the rest of Henrietta’s grandchildren. She was sharing what she had learned researching the Henrietta Lacks book. Once she stood beside him, Pullum announced that Skloot was going to tell the congregation what happened with Henrietta, Johns Hopkins, and Henrietta’s children. Surprised and nervous, Skloot resisted, but Pullum compelled her to join him. Pullum was the preacher that day, and almost as soon as the service began, he called Skloot to the pulpit. Shortly after Deborah’s discharge from the hospital after her stroke, Skloot joined her at her church to watch the baptism of Sonny’s nine-month-old granddaughter. Deborah suffers from breakdowns and even a stroke shortly after 9/11. The Henrietta Lacks book discusses the health challenges of Deborah Lacks. Read about how The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks book ends for Rebecca and Deborah. Over the course of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks book, Deborah’s struggles are a key feature. Her research her brought her to Deborah Lacks. Rebecca Skloot first became interested in HeLa in high school. What happens to the family of Henrietta Lacks at the end of Rebecca Skloot’s book? Is there some recognition for Henrietta or compensation for her family? What happens to Deborah, who is a large focus of Skloots storytelling in the Henrietta Lacks book? Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading. This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. ![]()
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