Admiring One Woman’s Passion

Recently I finished reading a very interesting book entitled “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. Although I had seen a news story about the book earlier in the year, I had no intention of reading it. A new friend, invited me to a book club that featured the book as a topic. Initially I was pretty excited when I thought about the chance to read the story, however, when I saw the size of the book (more than 350 pages), I didn’t think I’d want to read it. In essence, the book is about a poor, black woman from the South named Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer. However, without Henrietta or her family’s knowledge, doctors removed cancerous cells from her body and created the now famous HeLa cells, which are one of the most used cells in human history. The HeLa cells have been instrumental in research that’s worth billions of dollars and millions of lives. I learned so much about the Lacks family and cell culture while reading this book. But more importantly, I learned about the author, Rebecca Skloot. It took her 10 years to write this book and it was not easy. She fought and dug until she completed the book. Often times while reading, I asked myself whether I would’ve worked as hard to finish something like this.  Is my passion burning enough in me that I would endue years of discomfort, pain, uneasiness etc. for the sake of my passion. I can’t really answer that question now. I can say this: I admire Ms. Skloot’s diligent journey into Henrietta Lack’s life.