It turns out we are so much more than just a book club.

For years many of the voracious reader women in our family have talked about starting a book club. And since I've been known as The Organizer in the past, I thought this might serve nicely as my last hurrah.

So it is that we are the K-lady Book Club. “K” standing for Kunnari – the name around which we gather as family. Me and my three sisters, two sisters-in-law, and our daughters and daughters-in-law and the grands as they become adults. Twenty-one on the list at this writing – a few scattered around the globe, but they're excited to come when they can.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was our first assignment because I'd recently read it and felt it was ripe with discussion topics as several of us are in the medical field, some work with minorities and other cultures, most of us like to broaden our thinking, and as one participant said, “We all have ovaries.”

We arrived on an appropriately sticky, warm early summer evening to the sound of music from the 1950's when Henrietta's story began; and like her, a couple of our dancing queens grooved to the tunes while others chatted and nibbled off a table full of snacks.

Most had read the book, some weren't quite finished, some could not fit it into their life at this time. We're “no guilt, no condemnation, come anyway.” Almost three hours of thoughtful and insightful discussion about Henrietta's short life, the sad story of her children, and the ethical questions of the use of her cells ensued.

And that was good, but not as excellent as the sisterly togetherness wherein at various times throughout the evening we shared deep pain, we cried, we prayed, we sang together, we laughed, we hugged, we encouraged one another, and best of all another new baby was announced!

Share each others burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2