The Immortal Life

I am, Henrietta Lacks, and this is my story. My personal war on cancer was lost. I have died in pain, tormented by the tumors covering my body like a web, at the John Hopkins Hospital. But my life didn’t end at that point. Unexpectedly, the cancer tissue, which was taken from me by Dr. Gey, continued on living. Even though I was dead, my cells were alive - full of miracles to unfold and misery to cause.

The wonderful abilities of my cells were praised all over the world – they were a hope of finding the cures for the diseases that never though to be found. Even cancer didn’t seem so undefeatable. Medicine triumphed on the yet to be started war on cancer. But my cells were not only about science and potential medical progress that researches contemplated to promote. But also as these tissues gained importance and value, people started making huge profits out of them. And while the world was glorifying my cells for either its potential for a science or for the money they were bringing, the birthplace of the cells was of a second importance and therefore was forgotten, my family left in the shadow - clueless, overlooked and discovered only decades later by Rebecca Skloot .

Rebecca Skloot was the blessing for my family. She was the only one who showed sincere interest not just in miraculous abilities of my cells, but also in people who stood behind them. Her delicate description of the events that devastated my family’s peace demonstrates her personal sympathy towards the issue. Rebecca immersed her self in the research out of genuine interest and became a part of our family. Her work had an absolute therapeutic effect on my family – the story untold and forgotten was brought into light exposing the unfairness of the position o...

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... had no effect on the global scientific or business community who benefited from my cells. The only explanation for such a prolong reluctance to appreciate the importance of these cells could the fact that people were not touched by the story, they were too busy making money, doing research – they simply couldn’t relate to the distant sufferings of my family.

In 1951 I was suffering a lot from the physical pain, but now years after, being brought up back to life my mental sufferings are unbearable and exceed any physical torments. Then, 50 years ago or so, I was afraid that my pain wouldn’t be relieved and being absolutely honest with you I was afraid of death in general, but despite of hardships and pain in my life, I never complained and still wanted to live. But now the knowledge of the events that took place while I was frozen makes me to wish death.