Rita’s Secrets

There, in the kitchen with her daughter Gail Lukasik, Alvera Rita admitted that the census records and birth certificate were, in fact, accurate. Rita was born a light-skinned black woman to an entirely black family from New Orleans. As you might expect, growing up a person of color at the time was not easy. So, Rita found it easier to live as a white female, a role she continued to play for over half a century. Her daughter had actually been the first to figure it out!

Rita had decided to keep her entire family, including her beloved husband, in a web of lies. Meanwhile, Lukasik listened to her mother’s sad confession. Rita explained that her lies only grew and grew once she met her future husband, Lukasik’s father, Harold…