Tod Davies

  Dear Billy, So your uncle and I were talking about what wishes we would most want to send you at this point in your life -- like we were some kind of weird version of the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty -- and Alex said:  “Oh, health, love, and wealth, don’t you think?”  I asked him what he would have wished for at the same point … [Read more...] about Letter to My Teenage Nephew

  by Tod Davies  “I wanted to prove I could have a baby faster than your aunt.  That was why I had you.” … [Read more...] about My Mother 4: On Competition Between Women

by Tod Davies My mother, living in occupied Japan after the war, relieved that the bombing was over, believed every lie she was told about the United States. "I thought every American wore a dinner jacket!" she said later, in the pretty little kitchen of the pretty little bungalow where we lived in San Francisco. And she looked with an expression of mingled … [Read more...] about My Mother 3: The Quest for Safety

by Tod Davies My mother was born in Kobe, in Japan, in the Portuguese Catholic settlement there. She spent most of her childhood between Hong Kong and the lesser known island of Macao, across the bay, where her Portuguese/Chinese ancestors had lived since the 16th century: merchants, accountants, and pirates. When it was time for her to go to school, she was sent, as … [Read more...] about My Mother: Lost Treasure and Four Cats

by Tod Davies When I was five years old, my mother, who I loved with a red hot thwarted passion, sat me down and made me promise Something Big. "Promise me, little Tod, that you will never, ever write about me." I solemnly promised. Why did she ask this? It never occurred to me until much, much later that there was anything strange in it. Was I already showing … [Read more...] about My Mother