As Good or as Bad as I

About the Book

Did you wonder what it was like to live in a small town in Arkansas during the Depression, or to live in the country in the Midwest in the 1930’s?  Did you ever wonder what it was like to live in Louisiana or Maryland in the turbulent 1950’s – and “buck” the system?

You will get a glimpse of a “nonconformist” in various situations in Arkansas, Michigan, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland and Pennsylvania in a time frame spanning over 70 years.  The main character might be described as “an imperfect human in an imperfect world.”

As Good or as Bad as I is a true depiction of the roller coaster called life and the lengths a woman would go for her family.  From the Great Depression, to one of the worst life-threatening diseases of all time, being separated from her children, abuse, racism, divorce, and the death of too many loved ones, there is nothing “Robbi” hasn’t been through; however, it is truly evident that with patience, faith, and persistence, love can conquer all!

About the Author

Rolleesa Phillips has lived in 36 houses/apartments in six states.  She currently lives in Pennsylvania.

Rolleesa audited courses and was a guest second soprano in the chorus at Southeastern Louisiana College in Hammond, Louisiana from 1948 through 1951.  She earned a Master of Human Services degree from Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania in 1989.  Her varied jobs included: babysitter/housekeeper, waitress, various door to door sales for Telecolor, Avon, books and dishes.  She was a telephone operator/receptionist, charge phone operator/assistant bookkeeper, bookkeeping machine operator, secretary, bookkeeper, piano and voice teacher, as well as church pianist, soloist and organist.  She was a counselor in an after school program for emotionally disturbed children and a counselor in a shelter for battered women.

Twice divorced and twice widowed, Rolleesa is the birth mother of six children and the “step” and “adopted” mother to children too numerous to number.

Rolleesa has recently resigned, after 12 years, from her position as recording secretary of the Delaware Valley Polio Survivors Association, but remains an active member of the Board of Directors.