What Mike Davis’ family put into his ofrenda, and what he offered them
In the beginning, when we first introduced you to Mike Davis’ story, we said that “like his brother, Mike, who lost his battle with cancer, is not able to fully speak publicly.” It’s not a stretch to imagine that this was at least partially because Mike, like his brother, had lived through the first few years of his cancer diagnosis, when it felt like he and his family could do nothing but keep moving forward, never knowing what would happen next.
Mike died at the age of 46 with the promise of a full life ahead of him. Now, the other half of his family has started to talk about his words, and they found a way to take those words and pass them on to the Davis family. In the words of Mike’s mother, “We want everyone to know what Mike was.”
Mike’s obituary will be featured here as part of our series honoring the family members we’ve featured. In order to get ahead of the stories of families for which we don’t have photos available, we set out to take images of Mike’s family that we could share. Some of them are pretty amazing, some more ordinary—but all of them are just as important to the story of Mike as the stories he shared about his childhood and his struggles with cancer.
And with the help of his brother Mike, Mike’s mother, Elizabeth, and a few of his favorite things, here are a few photos that show just a little bit more of the man he was.
The front gate to Mike’s childhood home in Rochester, New York, with one of his dogs standing by the gate.
Mike’s childhood home in Rochester, New York, with Mike’s parents, Elizabeth and Joe, standing by the front door.
Mike. As he grew older, Mike didn’t just share his love for dogs, he also showed off his interest in bikes. This is some bike they had outside of the house, outside the carport.