Days of Daisies
by Teja Rhae Watson
Oakland, California. 2013.
Anna is single mama to Phoenix, and a teacher at the public school where he’s starting kindergarten. In a Berkeley creative writing course, Anna meets Sam, a local tattoo artist and skateboarder who blogs about being gender-queer.
Anna and Sam quickly fall in love, and the three become a family. But soon, Anna is given a death sentence: just six months to live. Wanting to enjoy the last of their time together, Anna decides to keep her brain tumor a secret from Sam and Phoenix.
The family travels to Portland for the summer, so Anna can access death with dignity—Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill, a humane way out if the pain gets too bad. When Sam agrees to adopt Phoenix, Anna is relieved, though she hides her reasons why. All she wants is to slow down and savor every second.
As a way to live on with Sam and Phoenix—as her time with them leaks away, as if from a broken hourglass—Anna starts writing a folk tale of their story. She would have liked for it to be longer, but in the end, they were only together for mere days….
Selected praise:
“A nuanced exploration of a modern queer family, from all three perspectives.”
“Lush and vibrant.”
