All That's My Mother/The Hospital For The Negro Insane pg.260-274

Rebecca Zakariyya and Deborah scheduled a meeting with Christoph Lengauer at his lab. I chuckled when Rebecca noticed that Zakariyya gained weight because she seems to analyze each person so carefully to each detail.

I also laughed when Zakariyya went from laughing at Deborah's praying to how serious and nervous he got before stepping into Christoph's lab at John Hopkins Hospital.

Once Christoph opened the lab door I could only imagine how Deborah and Zakariyya felt when they sawbillions of Henrietta's cells kept in vials.

I was surprised of how well Deborah knew what HeLa cells did for mankind. It seemed like all the research she was doing on the internet came in handy. Deborah even knew about the HeLa contamination problem. "Her cells caused millions of dollars in damage". (Skloot 262)

I enjoyed reading the part when Deborah wasn't paying attention to Christoph, instead she stood in awe and amazement of her mother's cells splitting in half before her eyes.

"Deborah and Zakariyya stared at the screen like they'd gone into a trance, mouths open, cheeks sagging".(Skloot 265) Rebecca was probably right when she said that was the closest they'd come to seeing their mother since they were children.

What hit me the hardest emotionally about this chapter is the emotions that went through Zakariyya. Just by Zakariyya showing his ounce of gratitude which he never does was a miracle in itself. He said thank you to Christoph and Rebecca. Deborah said "Girl, you just witnessed a miracle." (Skloot 267)

The last thing that Deborah wanted help from Rebecca was finding out what happened to Elsie, her younger sister. She was taken away as a kid and was sent to Crownsville also known as the Hospital for the Negro Insane.