For Once in My Life
For Once in My Life: The Authorized Biography of Arlinda Willis is a dual-timeline biography that chronicles the life of ARLINDA WILLIS, a Black woman born in 1951 in rural Alabama. Her formative years were surrounded by poverty, Jim Crow racism, Civil Rights tension, and trauma within her family. Before her 12th birthday, she reunited with her mother in Cleveland, Ohio, where she flourished in the entertainment industry. She earned a position as a dancer on the iconic TV show Upbeat, performing alongside Stevie Wonder and James Brown. She won a trophy half her size in the first Miss Black Cleveland beauty pageant in 1970, and pursued a modeling career while working at Eastman Kodak. Despite all of her accomplishments, her family ignored her.
Rising through the ranks of EASTMAN KODAK, they transferred Arlinda to San Francisco. She built a career in White male-dominated work environments and became a legal secretary at a top-100 law firm, THELEN. It was at Thelen where she met ROB COLE and, over the next 18 years, developed a flirtatious yet platonic friendship into an interracial, inter-generational romance.
During the Great Recession, Arlinda was right-sized from Thelen, where she struggled with addiction. With Rob’s assistance, she overcame her addiction months before a tumor developed in her esophagus. She underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, becoming cancer-free four months later.
For Once in My Life: The Authorized Biography of Arlinda Willis shows how the news stories of the time shaped Arlinda's life before they were logged in the history books. It exposes how being a Black woman adversely affected her medical care.
Arlinda struggled with trust issues, yet yearned for a deeper connection with someone. To move forward, she must set down the baggage of her past.
Rob Cole met Arlinda Willis at a San Francisco law firm in 1994. What began as a cubicle friendship became one of the most important relationships of his life. At Arlinda's request, he documented her life story. For Once in My Life is the result of nearly 20 years of friendship, research, and devotion to getting her story right.
Rob Cole holds a degree in English with specializations in Creative Writing and Comparative Literature. He is the founder of Fellowship for Perpetual Growth, an animal sanctuary on the Big Island of Hawaii, where he lives and writes.