What challenges did Henrietta and her family face? What do you think their greatest strengths were? Do you admire the way she faced her death? Do you think she was right to keep the information to herself? What do you think that says about the type of person she was?

Again I think the time period is important to remember. I would be furious today is someone I loved kept their illness from me. But, I think given the time it was not uncommon for people to keep families in the dark and to be stoic when dealing with illness.

She was stoic until the near end. Reading her she spent her last week was horrifying. Makes you wonder--would you let a dog suffer that way?

I am not sure that Henrietta was given adequate information about her condition or its prognosis. The details of her death were harrowing and the added humiliation of being in a segregated hospital made it even worse to contemplate. Her concern, during her final days, for her children was the most touching and heroic part of her story. She seemed always to be kind, loving, generous and stoic.

My heart broke for Henrietta. Alone, in pain, and probably frightened. To me, her manner of death is the hardest part of the whole story.