[ WP ] You are the soul of Henrietta Lacks , tied to the purgatory of countless cell cultures

Everyone has multiple deaths. The first is pretty straightforward, when the collection cells and tissue and energy cease to function together like they should, and you drop dead. Everybody has got to experience that one. 
 
 Second, there's the separation death, when you part with someone you love dear, never to see them again, and your heart breaks. Most people end up experiencing this one at some point in time, and often times it goes hand in hand with the first one. 
 
 Third is the poet's death. When, `` someone speaks your name for the last time.'' Very pretty thought and all, but it does n't amount to much in my book. 
 
 And then there is the last kind, the metaphysical kind. the one where your soul departs the world. Yeah, the soul exists, and it does n't leave until every piece of you breaks apart and goes away. Every organ, every cell, reaches its lowest energy level, and comes to rest. And when your body rests, so can you. 
 
 Except I ca n't. My life, and death, has been taken from me. It is not, and has never been mine. My body turned against me. It rebelled and grew and ate and, when the doctors could n't do anything, it stole my life. That's how I died the first time. And the second, since I was taken from my family, my babies. 
 
 But my soul did not leave, it lingered. I was tethered to the earth. Why? My life was taken from me. The doctors stole my body, the parts that had killed me, and kept it for themselves. Secretly, in the shadows. They prodded, they tested, they manipulated; a rape. And they passed me around. And I grew. And they experimented. And I expanded. And the helped. And I filled the whole earth. 
 
 I am fine with it, now. My family may be separated from me, but I am not separated from them. And because I was used, others are spared that second death. The world may not know me yet but they will. I have become the goddess, the giver of life and hope. Against my will. I may never get to experience the fourth death, but then, I may never get to experience the third, either. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in 1951. Unbenownst to her or her family, some of her cancer cells were taken and cultured in the lab, where it was discovered that her cells were'immortal', meaning that, like stem cells, they never had an end to their natural life cycle. These HeLa cells were then used as the first human cell line for countless experiments, and are responsible for a number of medical breakthroughs. For more info, see the [ Wikipedia page ] ( https: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks ) or read [ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ] ( http: //www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181 ).
