Daisy is Grace’s mother and Hattie’s great-grandmother. Daisy was 16 when she got pregnant by Wolde, an Ethiopian seaman who stopped over in her coastal, English town. He promises to return, and although he never does, Grace never lets his memory die. As Grace is growing up, Daisy tells her stories about her father, promising that they’ll travel to Ethiopia one day to find him, and she reminds Grace to be proud of her Ethiopian identity. Daisy’s determination to make sure her daughter grows up proud of her racial identity stands in stark contrast to the shame that Ada Mae and Sonny will feel generations later. When Daisy’s father finds out she is pregnant, he orders her to give the baby up, but she refuses and instead moves out on her own. She and baby Grace live in a tenement with another single mother and her child, and she works long hours at a factory. Daisy dreams of a better life for herself and her daughter, but before she can make those dreams come true, she falls ill with tuberculosis and is forcibly removed to a sanitorium where she succumbs to the disease.
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Daisy Character Timeline in Girl, Woman, Other
The timeline below shows where the character Daisy appears in Girl, Woman, Other. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: Megan/Morgan
...Wolde. All she knew was that he was an Ethiopian seaman who got her mother, Daisy, pregnant on a stopover in England, never to be seen again. Grace wanted to know...
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Chapter 4: Grace
Grace’s mother, Daisy, tells her that her father, Wolde, was an Abyssinian seaman who she met while he...
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Daisy gives birth in the tenement she shares with her large family. When her father sees...
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Daisy is diagnosed with tuberculosis when Grace is eight. She’s put into quarantine, leaving Grace with...
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