Some books take one year to write. Arlinda's took 31. Since the day I started recording her stories in 1995, For Once in My Life: The Authorized Biography of Arlinda Willis has handed me some of the greatest joys and deepest heartbreaks of my life. Here are the highlights and lowlights of that journey we underwent:

Win: Starting the autobiography with Arlinda, and recording her anecdotes. 

Loss: Hearing about her cancer diagnosis. 

Win: Helping her feel valued, and appreciated, through a balance of caregiving and humor. 

Loss: Arlinda passing away. 

Win: Shaping Arlinda's notes into a cohesive narrative. 

Loss: Finding out that doctors were telling us a different prognosis from what they recorded in their books. 

Win: Editing Arlinda's manuscript, now a biography. Turning the medical racism around into making the book relevant to readers.

Loss: Discovering how expensive it would be to include short song lyric epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter.

Win: Steve Popovich granting permission for me to use a photo of Arlinda dancing with Stevie Wonder on the Upbeat show. That photo is on the cover of the biography.

Loss: Querying more than 100 literary agents about Arlinda's book, having 48 kind rejections, and the remainder ignoring my requests.

Win: Deciding to publish Arlinda's book on what would have been her 75th birthday.

Win: Having so many people interested in reading Arlinda's story, with the positive personal and professional reviews recognizing the value her message has with current readers.

Win: Having Arlinda's book picked up by a local bookstore, Big Island Book Buyers. Thank you, Mary, for your wonderful support!

If I could tally it all up, the losses were real and painful, but the wins outshined them. I had developed her notes into a story, and turned the medical racism we lived through into something readers today can learn from. On what would have been her 75th birthday, her book went out into the world, and readers are responding positively to her message. Arlinda spent her life proving her worth. I hope this book shows her what I always knew: she was enough just as she was.