The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

The narrative jumps back to the 1950s. After Henrietta’s funeral, cousins from Clover and Turner Station help to care for her family. While Day works two jobs, Lawrence drops out of school to care for his siblings. At sixteen, he lies about his age and goes to the pool halls, even getting himself a voter registration saying that he’s eighteen. This lie, however, results in his getting drafted for the Korean War at age sixteen.

Deborah, Sonny, and Joe are never told exactly what happened to their mother. In the meantime, their cousin Ethel comes to care for them, moving in along with her husband Galen. Many of the cousins believe that Ethel is trying to move on from Galen to Day, while others believe that she is trying to get back at Henrietta, whom she hated, by torturing her children.

Ethel starves Henrietta’s children, waking them at dawn and forcing them to do chores. In the summers, she sends them to Clover to pick worms off tobacco leaves. If they ever stop, Ethel beats them. She focuses most of her vitriol on Joe, hitting him for no reason, forcing him to stand in a dark basement for hours on end, and tying him up with a rope. Joe becomes incredibly angry and hostile, and the family starts wondering whether Henrietta’s cancer somehow affected his brain in the womb.

In 1959, Lawrence moves into a house with his girlfriend, Bobbette, when he’s twenty-four and she’s twenty. The two have a child, and they learn about Ethel’s abuse of the other Lacks siblings. Bobbette insists that the whole family move in with her and Lawrence.

At ten years old, Deborah has caught the eye of Ethel’s husband Galen, who begins to sexually abuse her. She tries to tell Day, but he doesn’t believe her. Galen chases Deborah naked and calls her a “whore,” but also gives her gifts, telling her that he will “wear a rubber” so that she doesn’t have to worry about getting pregnant. Deborah begs him to leave her alone.

Deborah begins doing chores at other people’s houses to make money, and tries to walk home after work, although Galen often tries to abuse her in his car. One day Deborah is walking home with a boy called Alfred “Cheetah” Carter, and Galen pulls up and begins screaming at her. When Deborah refuses to get in, he returns with Day. Galen throws her into the car and punches her in the face, all as Day watches.

Deborah runs into Bobbette and Lawrence’shouse, bleeding and sobbing. When Bobbette demands to know what’s happened, Deborah tells her that Galen has been hitting her and talking dirty to her. In response, Bobbette goes over to Galenand Ethel’s house and tells them if they ever touch the Lacks children again, she will kill them.

Rebecca explains that school is difficult for all of the Lacks children; they have all inherited some kind of genetic hearing disorder. They never reveal their disability to their teachers, and so it goes untreated. When Deborah tells Bobbette about her difficulty, Bobbette tells her to sit up front. Since Bobbette has told Deborah that her hearing problems might be caused by her parents being first cousins, Deborah wonders whether Elsie’smental challenges might be due to a genetic disorder as well.

While growing up, Deborah doesn’t even know she has a sister. When Day finally tells her, Elsie is already dead. Inconsolable, Deborah starts trying to learn about Elsie. She asks Lawrence for memories of their sister and mother until he begins sobbing. Deborah cries herself to sleep over what happened to her mother and sister, and repeatedly asks Day what happened to the two of them.