Chapter 15: Too Young to Remember

After Henrietta's funeral cousins came and went to help care for the children and Day; one of them brought tuberculosis as well. Henrietta's children Sonny, Deborah and Joe all got it. Deborah was sent home with TB pills but Joe was in an isolation chamber coughing up blood for about a year, only the second year of his life. When they overcame their illness they came home and were abused by a cousin named Ethel who stayed there with her husband Galen. Ethel and Day began to mess around and Galen started to sexually abuse Deborah. Lawrence, Henrietta's oldest son was drafted into the army and when the Korean War started and had know idea what was happening to his brothers and Deborah. When he came back he married Bobbette Cooper in 1959 and soon the children moved in with them to escape the abuse. The boys were saved but Galen found Deborah everywhere she went. He would follow her home and drag her into the car; when she refused he got Day and punched her in the face. After that she finally had the courage to tell Bobbette about what Galen did to her and Bobbette told them if they ever hurt any of those kids again she'd kill them herself. Deborah wondered about her mother and sister and what they went through. She often asked about her mother but all Day ever told her was that "Her name was Henrietta Lacks and she died when you were too young to remember."