For Sallie Rodman, writing has always been a personal journey. She has always put her feelings and experiences into her writing.
She has penned a lot of stories about her family, friends and her life. She has written for newspapers and magazines and as her writing improved, she found herself getting her stories published in the popular “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” books.
It was a perfect fit, stories for average people, written by average people as a kind of therapy for the spirit. She has had more than 40 of her stories included in the Chicken Soup collections, but none were more personal than the recent story published in 2013 book, “Chicken Soup for the Soul, Just Us Girls.”
For that book, Rodman shared her experience and the support she received from friends after he husband of 46 years died suddenly on Dec. 2, 2010. The shock of his death hit Rodman hard and she said she stopped writing for nearly a year.
“He was a big part of my life for 46 years,” Rodman said.
Rodman’s story explains how she suddenly felt like she didn’t fit anymore. All her friends were still married. Her children were grown and her parents and even her sister had all passed away. Her therapist assured her that her friends would be there when she needed them, Rodman writes and he story explains how her now three year-year journey as a widow has been buoyed by those friends.
Because her writings have been so personal, Rodman said she sometimes has trouble getting into the heart of the emotions that come with putting those feelings on paper. She said she will sometimes skirt the issue and then step away from the story.
But she knows eventually she has to get back on the computer and let her thoughts and feelings show through in her writing.
“Nobody wants to read a superficial story,” Rodman said.
Rodman and her husband Paul were married on May 24, 1964, while he was home on leave and she was still in college. The two were set to be married that September. But while dining at a Chinese restaurant, they received a fortune cookie that said, ‘Don’t do anything on the spur of the moment.’ They decided to challenge that theory and elope that night. They drove to Yuma Arizona and got married, she in a black dress.
Thankfully, her father was able to get back his deposits on the wedding and the two were married again a week later in a church with family in attendance.
They settled in Los Alamitos and raised three children here, Patrick, Jennifer and Mary. Paul was in sales and Sallie worked in politics, for a Long Beach City Councilman. In 1996 Sallie took some writing classes through Cal State Long Beach, earning a certificate in writing and she was off and running.
She has written about friends and family members and said she likes the idea of immortalizing them and the impact they have had on her life. And there was no bigger impact on her than the loss of Paul. Now that her short story is published, she is hoping to write a book to help other widows and their struggles to fit into their world as single women again.
She also likes to work with mixed media art and is always on the lookout for book clubs and writing groups to join. She may also look for ways to get back involved in local political activism as well. But through it all she will continue to write.
“I love writing,” Rodman said. “I think that’s what I’m meant to do.”
