David "Day" Lacks Timeline and Summary

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David "Day" Lacks Timeline and Summary

  • Day shares a bedroom with cousin Henrietta as they grow up together in grandfather Tommy Lacks' house in Clover.
  • Day and cousin "Crazy Joe" fight over Henrietta.
  • He and Henrietta have their first child, Lawrence, when Henrietta's just 14.
  • They have another child two years later.
  • Day marries Henrietta when she's 20.
  • Cousins Fred and Cliff urge Day to move to Turner Station for better work. He goes ahead of his family to establish himself.
  • Day brings Henrietta to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for diagnosis and treatment. He doesn't know what is wrong with her.
  • In the present timeline, Skloot tries to contact Day. He refuses to speak with her.
  • After Henrietta dies, Hopkins asks for Day's permission to conduct an autopsy. He refuses.
  • A cousin convinces him to change his mind, for the sake of the children.
  • Day invites Ethel and Galen to move in with him to mind the children.
  • He refuses to interfere in Galen's molestation of Deborah.
  • Day reveals the existence of Elsie to Deborah.
  • Back to Skloot: Day appears at Lawrence's house to meet Skloot for the first time.
  • He tells her about Hopkins' reputation for abducting black people for research subjects.
  • Earlier in the timeline: Susan Hsu, Victor McKusick's assistant, contacts Day to ask permission to draw blood from the family. This is his first knowledge that Henrietta's cells are still alive.
  • He allows the blood draw, but doesn't understand what it is for.
  • Day sees his son Zakariyya sleeping on the street outside his door and invites him to stay with him. Zakariyya's too angry with his father to accept.
  • Day dies in 2009.