Finding Strength, Purpose, and a Second Chapter Through Storytelling

“There is no expiration date stamped on the bottom of my foot.” R.L. Dunn

When I interviewed Long Island author Robin L. Dunn, known to readers as R.L. Dunn, I quickly realized her life story could fill the pages of a novel all on its own. In fact, much of it already has.

Robin lives on Long Island’s beautiful Gold Coast in Sea Cliff with her husband. She has four children, a lovable mixed-breed dog named Moe, and two black cats named Luna and Stinky. Warm, funny, resilient, and deeply reflective, Robin is the kind of woman whose quiet strength immediately fills a room.

Before becoming an author, Robin spent decades serving others in emergency medical services. She worked her way up to becoming Nassau County’s first female Deputy Chief in EMS and served as faculty for the New York State EMS Academy from 1995 to 2012. Her career was intense, demanding, and often exhausting, balancing long shifts, motherhood, marriage, and endless responsibility.

But life had even more challenges ahead.

Her husband, a retired Nassau police lieutenant and 9/11 cancer survivor, has been her constant for 37 years. They balanced home life and careers around each other’s schedules. “I could not have done it without him.”

Then came every parent’s nightmare, her young son’s leukemia diagnosis at just six years old. For years, hospital rooms became part of daily life. Robin spoke emotionally about living at Winthrop Hospital during her son’s treatments, spending nearly 300 days there over a three-year period (2006 – 2009), while trying to hold her family together. Today, thankfully, her son is 27 years old and cancer-free.

Then, in 2012, after her second stroke, battles with cancer and lupus, she had to retire. She was given six months to live and told to get her affairs in order.

And yet somehow, through all of it, Robin found a way to survive. Not only did she survive, but she thrived.

After her last stroke, Robin experienced vivid dreams while recovering in the hospital. She imagined conversations with a mysterious man named Chase. Her physical therapist encouraged her to begin writing down the stories forming in her mind as part of her recovery and cognitive therapy.

That decision changed everything.

What began as healing slowly became purpose.

Today, R.L. Dunn is the author of more than 25 books, blending romance, suspense, and emotional depth with characters that feel authentic because many of the emotions behind them are real. One of her novels was inspired by the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant controversy and the loss of a close friend who died of cancer just weeks before Robin’s wedding.

She describes herself as a self-taught author who learned the publishing world through persistence, research, classes, and determination. She became heavily involved with Romance Writers of America and the Long Island Romance Writers community, eventually serving in leadership roles including president.

Robin openly admits the road was not easy.

“There is no expiration date stamped on the bottom of my foot,” she told me with a smile.

“I stopped worrying about what was and began thinking about what is.”

Now using a cane, walker, or wheelchair depending on the day, Robin refuses to allow limitations to define her life. Instead, she focuses on gratitude, purpose, and making the best of each day.

“There is life after loss,” she said quietly. “Find something you love.” And she did.

Today, Robin continues writing, connecting with readers, attending festivals and book fairs, and inspiring others through her honesty and perseverance. Her books are available through Amazon and through her website at www.rldunnauthor.com

In a world obsessed with perfection and polished success stories, Robin’s journey feels refreshingly real. It is not a story about avoiding hardship. It is a story about continuing despite it.

That is exactly why readers connect with her so deeply. Because behind every romance novel, every suspenseful page turner, and every fictional character she creates, there is a woman who understands survival, love, grief, resilience, and hope in the most human way possible.