Old Bad Sally Begins

The character Old Bad Sally first began with my aunt Bobbi, my mom’s younger sister. It goes that she was trying to entertain one of my older sisters with a story about a little girl who was a prankster. I don’t know for sure, but this actually sounds like stories that could have been instigated by my mom. She, for sure, was a prankster her entire life.

My four siblings and I loved these stories! Sally was our hero! She was not worried about parents, nuns, Monsignor Mattingly or getting into trouble at all. We edited and passed down these stories to our children, and then to our grandchildren.

For over 20 years, I said that I was going to write and publish a book about Old Bad Sally. Even though I made up other elaborate stories for my grandchildren — even ones that they ‘starred’ in — they always wanted Old Bad Sally, and one or two stories were never enough either. I felt that children everywhere would also enjoy this story. Life can get in the way though, and I never fulfilled this dream.

Fast forward to last Winter. Maybe it was being shut in, maybe it was the fact I had at least started writing by journaling, or maybe I was starting to get bored (that rarely happens though). The fact remains that it was somewhat of a “perfect storm” in my life of very hard things happening that were beyond my control. Just when I thought that I, a relentlessly strong woman, was going to admit defeat and let events take me under (so to speak), my spirit yelled “Noooooo”!! And the first book of Old Bad Sally began. Somehow I turned this pain into creating something I had always wanted to. I had always loved the word ‘alchemy’, but now I saw it up-close and personal in my life. Pain and suffering can be turn into something else.

I hope these words reach someone who needs to hear them. We are meant to go through the hardest times in our lives. It can propel us to the next level. We don’t get there by joy and laughter (unfortunately), although we should never give up on finding those things once again.