At 49, Rlynda is standing tall, not because the road has been easy, but because she has chosen, again and again, to rise. Every wrinkle, every reinvention, every step forward or backward is part of her story, and right now, she’s falling for all of it.

Rlynda’s story is not an ode to change as loss, but as power and it echoes the theme for this issue; Falling for You: every chapter, every change, every age. From her childhood in Cape Verde to the runways of New York, from divorce to rediscovering love, from surviving an accident to building new dreams, she has embraced every chapter not as an ending, but as an opportunity for reinvention.

There are people whose lives inspire you, and then there are people like Rlynda, women who remind us that resilience isn’t about avoiding challenges, but about rising after each fall with more grace, wisdom, and strength. As she tells Hope+Wellth, her mantra has carried her through every chapter:  “Rooted in love, rising in light.”