Rita Louise Wilcox was the oldest of five Irish Catholic children raised in East Texas. All were parochial school educated, which encouraged prolific writings from an early age. Summers were spent riding bikes through the woods, swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, and generally enjoying the outdoors sans television. It was a simpler time, without digital devices, where books were the only method to take you to far away places. Imagination was an essential part of entertainment, so it was a time that encouraged much story telling.
The story of Captain Vadim Alevsky was not imagined, however, as Rita’s grandmother (aka Mamou) knew the remaining Romanov family well. She befriended this family, transplanted from such a foreign world, because she was one to seek out the few available foreigners in an effort to broaden her knowledge of the world. She tried her best to enliven their lonely lives by introducing these isolated immigrants to the well-known hospitality of Texas. As the Romanov’s learned to trust Mamou and her granddaughter Rita, they shared their amazing tale of escape from a certain death to a warm, welcoming land of hope.
You can find out more about Rita Wilcox as an author at “islandwidow.wordpress.com”, followed by an international audience. She now teaches part-time in the Galveston ISD. Having shared her story with many in the classroom, she found two things important to the desire to read this story. The students loved the romantic story line and the fact that is based on the truth. They also felt they are getting to know a young Russian aristocrat who lived this story and survived to tell the tale. While Rita is new to the world of published literature, she has written voluntarily for her entire adult life, from high school newspapers to sailing club newsletters. She enjoys sharing stories collected over a very active lifetime