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Early in A Family Thing, Earl Pilcher s mother dies, and leaves him a letter for the reverend to deliver after her death. Earl runs a garage and filling station in Arkansas, and is so devoted to his mother that he locked a customer inside the station in his hurry to be at her bedside. The letter contains information Earl was not expecting: His mother is not his mother.
There is more unexpected news: Earl, who has lived all his life as a white man, has a black mother, who became pregnant by his father. Because the young black woman was Mrs. Pilcher s best friend and closest confidant, and because the pregnancy was clearly the man s fault, the two women entered into a conspiracy to keep it all a secret. Willie Mae s your real mother by blood, the letter tells him. Nobody knew, because you came up white. Willie Mae died having you. I was right there. Earl was raised by the Pilchers, but now, on her deathbed, the old woman wants to tell the truth at last. She en