Bridgett Davis opens this love letter to her mother with a hell of a story. When Bridgett’s second grade teacher displayed suspicion about just how many pairs of shoes her pupil had, Fannie Davis very emphatically wasn’t having it. I won’t spoil what happened–you can probably catch the whole thing in the free sample on Amazon–but suffice it to say that the opening story serves two purposes: to get the reader on Fannie Davis’s side, and to reassure the reader that one is in excellent story-telling hands with Bridgett Davis at the helm.
In 1958, Fannie Davis found herself in a tough spot. Her husband had been injured in a workplace accident that made it difficult for him to hold down a steady job, and they had five children still at home. So, Fannie “made a way out of no way”: she started a side hustle running numbers in her community. The numbers turned out to be a good fit for Fannie, and she built a successful business that provided well for her family and community for the next 30 years.
Davis tells the story of her remarkable mother, a woman who was lucky and generous with her good fortune. Fannie used her modest wealth not only to buy nice things, but also to offer assistance to those in need in her community–the battered young wives who needed a place to stay, the niece whose parents weren’t going to be able to make the next semester’s tuition payments, childcare for the young couple without family nearby to help.
Davis’s portrait of her mother borders on hagiography. Where Bridgett admits to her mother’s human failings, it almost feels as if she’s waving them away. She doesn’t dwell on her mother’s shortcomings. She came here to celebrate Fannie’s life, and it’s a beautiful tribute that any mother would be honored to read.
The Detroit Davis grew up in changed significantly over the 60s and 70s, and you get a little of that in the story. We get a little bit of education in the impact of redlining on black home-ownership and what space Numbers games occupied in the black community. But mostly, this is a small scale story of a young woman doing her best to take care of her family through the eyes of her youngest child. (Fanny Davis passed in 1992. Fanny was private, and her perspective is missing here.)
Fanny’s story is an American story. The story of a woman who knew the world was indifferent (at best) to her health and welfare, and found a way forward regardless of any obstacles ahead. If there were any justice in the world, this would be optioned for a movie shortly.
