Nelda Stidham-Woodruff was finally able to grant her mother’s wish.
It wasn’t the easiest journey, but it’s one Woodruff couldn’t be happier she embarked on.
“The first thing I did, I looked up to Heaven – ‘Mama, I did it,’ Woodruff said.
Fifteen years ago, Woodruff was asked by her mother – also named Nelda, Nelda Candies – to write a book about their family and its deep roots in Des Allemands. But Woodruff, a gifted storyteller, doubted herself in regards to whether she could pull it off.
“I told her I wasn’t smart enough to do it,” Woodruff said. “I was afraid of being a failure. But she’d bring it up here and there … she was the inspiration.”
Woodruff came around to the idea, and as of this year she’s officially a published author. “Bayou Gal: Love, Danger and Alligators – Living the Bayou Life” is set for its official release on July 9 and will be available widely, including on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart and BookBaby (the book can actually be purchased and shipped now on the latter), and outlets can be found also through Woodruff’s website bayougal.com.
Her mother, more than anything, wanted her children and grandchildren to have stories of the family to look back on.
One day while cleaning, Woodruff came across a box of her mother’s things that included a story the latter wrote in 2006 about her life as a child and her journeys through life.
Woodruff made the decision that day to make her mother’s vision a reality. Candies passed away in 2015 and would never be able to read it, but it was a strong way to honor her all the same.
“I felt the need to complete her story,” Woodruff said.
There are plenty of stories within her story – and within Woodruff’s own, who grew up a self-proclaimed “Air Force brat” and who became an alligator hunter – as was her mother.
“She was such an outdoorsman,” said Woodruff. “We hunted alligators and farmed together for many years. I wrote about how we moved back here in 1965, and when Hurricane Betsy hit, it was an incredible shock for us. We were living out in California the previous four years. It hardly ever even rained there.”
She also writes of other alligator hunters in the area, like Joel Dejean of Bayou Gauche – Woodruff called him “one of the originals” – and how the famous Roy Rogers came down for a hunt.
When it came to alligators, the Neldas were both fearless.
“I loved it,” Woodruff said. “I loved it … everywhere we lived, and we lived a lot of places, my mother always fished and she always hunted. She taught us young. She knew when my dad retired, she wanted my sister and I to be prepared for hunting and fishing.”
Eventually, Woodruff and her mother started “Nelda’s Crawfish and Alligator Farm.”
And there are other stories – without giving too much away, one tells of the time Woodruff was stranded on an oyster reef in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for two days.
Getting all of it onto paper – and published – was a different kind of journey.
That was especially so because Woodruff by her own admission was not very technologically inclined.
“I hadn’t used a computer since I retired – so for about 10 years,” Woodruff said. “And it was tough … I wasn’t getting anywhere with it. It was very frustrating, and I wanted to quit so many times.”
Woodruff, like her mother, is all about being outdoors and about. Even sitting still for a lengthy period of time is a chore for her.
She learned to be patient, to shut out the distractions – and then the words began to flow.
“I devoted myself completely to writing stories,” she said. “I did my research, talked to people, read articles … I couldn’t write the history of all my ancestors, but I made the best of the information I had.”
And now …
“My kids and grandkids have legends of their mother, grandmother and great grandmother,” said Woodruff.
The rewarding experience has inspired her to pursue another – Bayou Gal won’t be her last book, as she’s planning to write another that will focus on the fishermen of Des Allemands.
But her first will always be very special, for many reasons.
“I enjoyed it because it pulled out a lot of memories, and I could just feel the presence of Mama,” Woodruff said.
