Character Analysis
Henrietta's cousin is the first of the Lacks Town family members that Skloot meets in 1999 when she wanders into Clover hoping to learn something. He gives a loving account of Henrietta, who he adored for taking care of him when he had polio and who always told him that she would cure him if she could. Maybe she could see the future; HeLa cells were later used in the testing of the polio vaccine.
The conversation with Cootie not only gives Skloot a better sense of Henrietta, but it also helps her understand the family's thinking about her illness. Skloot explains that "[Cootie] told me about spirits in Lacks Town that sometimes visited people's houses and caused disease." (82)
It helps her to communicate information in appropriate ways to the Lacks family, without making cultural assumptions that might have been totally wrong.