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Ditch Weed
Eighteen year-old Danae Gray hasn’t see her older sister in eleven years. But there she is, just across the street, in this small North Florida town where Danae has only just arrived. Has fate finally brought them back together? Is it really even her?
Mevlyn Jenson, the feisty octogenarian owner of the WashAway Laundromat, can see Danae is lost, alone, and troubled. But Mevlyn needs help as much as Danae does, and the two quickly form an alliance. In exchange for room, board, and Mevlyn’s freely bestowed advice, Danae begins to help Mevlyn care for her terminally ill husband.
As Danae unravels the tragic secret surrounding her older sister’s disappearance, and Mevlyn comes to terms with the losses in her own life, Danae and Mevlyn create a new heart-family, filled with love and renewed hope.
Mevlyn Jenson, the feisty octogenarian owner of the WashAway Laundromat, can see Danae is lost, alone, and troubled. But Mevlyn needs help as much as Danae does, and the two quickly form an alliance. In exchange for room, board, and Mevlyn’s freely bestowed advice, Danae begins to help Mevlyn care for her terminally ill husband.
As Danae unravels the tragic secret surrounding her older sister’s disappearance, and Mevlyn comes to terms with the losses in her own life, Danae and Mevlyn create a new heart-family, filled with love and renewed hope.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 13, 2024
“Ditch Weed” is a heartfelt story, ultimately uplifting, about transcendence and friendships, and well worth the read. It is all the more engaging because the friendships at its core are unusual. And while these friendships form the emotional core of the novel, don’t think that means things don’t happen because there’s action a plenty in the rich plot.
Danae, a runaway teenager who lands in the small Florida town of Chattahoochee, is befriended by a much older woman, Mevlyn, when they meet in a laundromat that Mevlyn owns. Mevlyn quickly judges that the 18-year-old is a “purty much ruined” and thinks this is “etched all over her, as clear as if it been printed in permanent marker.” But Mevlyn is a wise old soul who also notes the teen is polite, and so the older woman offers to help the younger one with her loads of dirty clothes. It’s a slow start to what builds first into a solid friendship and then a mother-daughter family relationship.
Danae is hiding a secret, or maybe more than one, that much Mevlyn sees early on, but she respects the young woman because Mevlyn has a few secrets of her own. Yet what is not secret is that Mevlyn is being overwhelmed with the demands of owning and running the laundromat while caring for her much beloved husband, Sam, who is dying of cancer. Danae soon becomes the helpmate Mevlyn and Sam both need. The scenes between the two women and Sam remain tender, honest, and touching, never once dipping into sentimentality or cliche.
Danae also befriends, or is befriended by, a Black youth named Malcolm, who steps lightly around some of the town’s more threatening sorts as he recognizes: “Some of the kind, upstanding citizens in this very crowd would gladly string me up” for being Black. Their relationship is not a romantic one, though some in the town appear to think so and to be angered by the possibility of a Black man with a White girlfriend. That Malcolm’s father is a well-respected police officer in the town will prove helpful to both Malcolm and Danae. Malcolm dreams of leaving the small town and making something of himself, and in the meantime, he tells Danae, “I don’t want to bring down that bucket of hate over my head.”
Danae’s sister, who disappeared as an apparent runaway when little more than a child, floats through the developing story as both memory and as someone Danae seeks. When Danae spots a young woman in the town who she believes could be her lost sister, she does not directly confront the other woman. Rather, she warily gathers information about this person, leading to yet another small mystery and building suspense as to why Danae is so cautious and reluctant to simply introduce herself and ask if the woman might be her sister.
It's not a plot spoiler to mention Danae has a child. The story opens with that fact. But the mystery of who the father is and other circumstances surrounding this child are only slowly revealed, creating a tension in the story that moves the plot onward with interest. DeVane knows well how to pace a story for maximum interest.
Though the story has far more lightness than darkness, the darkness is there. Physical abuse, violence, attempted rape, vandalism, and racism all find a sinister place in the plot. Still, this is an uplifting, marvelous story—really a gem!
Danae, a runaway teenager who lands in the small Florida town of Chattahoochee, is befriended by a much older woman, Mevlyn, when they meet in a laundromat that Mevlyn owns. Mevlyn quickly judges that the 18-year-old is a “purty much ruined” and thinks this is “etched all over her, as clear as if it been printed in permanent marker.” But Mevlyn is a wise old soul who also notes the teen is polite, and so the older woman offers to help the younger one with her loads of dirty clothes. It’s a slow start to what builds first into a solid friendship and then a mother-daughter family relationship.
Danae is hiding a secret, or maybe more than one, that much Mevlyn sees early on, but she respects the young woman because Mevlyn has a few secrets of her own. Yet what is not secret is that Mevlyn is being overwhelmed with the demands of owning and running the laundromat while caring for her much beloved husband, Sam, who is dying of cancer. Danae soon becomes the helpmate Mevlyn and Sam both need. The scenes between the two women and Sam remain tender, honest, and touching, never once dipping into sentimentality or cliche.
Danae also befriends, or is befriended by, a Black youth named Malcolm, who steps lightly around some of the town’s more threatening sorts as he recognizes: “Some of the kind, upstanding citizens in this very crowd would gladly string me up” for being Black. Their relationship is not a romantic one, though some in the town appear to think so and to be angered by the possibility of a Black man with a White girlfriend. That Malcolm’s father is a well-respected police officer in the town will prove helpful to both Malcolm and Danae. Malcolm dreams of leaving the small town and making something of himself, and in the meantime, he tells Danae, “I don’t want to bring down that bucket of hate over my head.”
Danae’s sister, who disappeared as an apparent runaway when little more than a child, floats through the developing story as both memory and as someone Danae seeks. When Danae spots a young woman in the town who she believes could be her lost sister, she does not directly confront the other woman. Rather, she warily gathers information about this person, leading to yet another small mystery and building suspense as to why Danae is so cautious and reluctant to simply introduce herself and ask if the woman might be her sister.
It's not a plot spoiler to mention Danae has a child. The story opens with that fact. But the mystery of who the father is and other circumstances surrounding this child are only slowly revealed, creating a tension in the story that moves the plot onward with interest. DeVane knows well how to pace a story for maximum interest.
Though the story has far more lightness than darkness, the darkness is there. Physical abuse, violence, attempted rape, vandalism, and racism all find a sinister place in the plot. Still, this is an uplifting, marvelous story—really a gem!
August 2, 2024
Purty-much ruined. That is Mevlyn Johnson’s assessment of nineteen-year old Danae Gray when she first sees her in the Wash-Away laundromat. And initially, it seems to be Danae’s assessment of herself. She has just limped into town on a broken motorbike, with nowhere to go and no way to get there. We soon learn that Danae is trying to outrun her past, while Mevlyn struggles to envision a future without her terminally-ill husband.
As we are drawn into the lives of these women, we find all the elements of good storytelling: a mystery involving the disappearance of Danae’s sister years earlier, a secret Mevlyn has kept for decades, and a villain willing to terrorize both women. But more importantly, DeVane clearly has a real sense of community, and it’s out of her small southern town setting that the story develops. However, despite the vivid deep-south atmosphere, and a narrative that is at times laugh-out-loud funny, DeVane doesn’t allow her story to descend into stereotype. Instead, she populates it with a cast of diverse, idiosyncratic characters, and then allows to us watch them emerge and grow.
Through careful plotting and character evolution, this jumble of humanity comes together to form a caring, messy, endearing, and mostly functional, family of choice. Ditch Weed is a heartwarming, life-affirming story to be savored.
As we are drawn into the lives of these women, we find all the elements of good storytelling: a mystery involving the disappearance of Danae’s sister years earlier, a secret Mevlyn has kept for decades, and a villain willing to terrorize both women. But more importantly, DeVane clearly has a real sense of community, and it’s out of her small southern town setting that the story develops. However, despite the vivid deep-south atmosphere, and a narrative that is at times laugh-out-loud funny, DeVane doesn’t allow her story to descend into stereotype. Instead, she populates it with a cast of diverse, idiosyncratic characters, and then allows to us watch them emerge and grow.
Through careful plotting and character evolution, this jumble of humanity comes together to form a caring, messy, endearing, and mostly functional, family of choice. Ditch Weed is a heartwarming, life-affirming story to be savored.
July 10, 2024
Great story, once I got started, I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Felt as if I were there. The edge of my old stomping grounds.
I have been to a number of those places. Chipola Junior College and FSU are alumni.
I have been to a number of those places. Chipola Junior College and FSU are alumni.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews