COVID fueled a friendship — and a writing partnership — for two South Beach women
READ MORE
We’re not going back
The pandemic showed many of us that life is fragile, and there’s no time to waste. The Miami Herald Editorial Board reached out to women who made changes in their lives — shifting careers, fulfilling hobbies, and dedicating more time to things that made their lives more meaningful.
Expand All
When Pamela Mayer’s husband passed away six years ago, she set out on a mission to broaden her world through new friendships. The Miami native joined clubs and committees in her Miami Beach community before stumbling across a Facebook group exclusively for women writers.
And when Irina Patterson, an event performer and balloon artist from Russia, lost most of her gig work due to the pandemic, she decided to dive back into her writing hobby.
Both women, searching for more meaning in their lives, ended up finding each other during the pandemic when they joined the Women Writers group of South Beach Facebook group. Through it, they built a friendship that has helped them through the tough months and a writing habit that fuels them creatively.
“She joined. And we just hit it off,” Mayer said.
Mayer and Patterson soon began working together on projects outside of the group, submitting their writing to contests across the country. From there, their friendship — and their success — blossomed.
“She’s a firecracker,” Patterson said, about Mayer. “She’s like my buddy. We chat like every day, and we laugh at each other.”
Patterson and Mayer had more in common than writing. Both women are widowed. Both have a show-biz bent. Patterson, a former emergency room physician in Russia, changed her career to balloon art after moving to Florida and has been an entertainer ever since. And Mayer, a Miami socialite who exclusively wears the color black, had acted in musicals at the Coconut Grove Playhouse years ago.
The women use their lives as fodder for their stories. Mayer has one about scattering her mother’s ashes in the ocean. She says it’s hilarious. And Patterson has a story about the nuances of dating in her sixties, and using the dating app, Tindr, looking for a “match.”
The group of writers — the group has about 86 members — meet each week over Zoom to read their work and give feedback. Mayer facilitates the meetings, which used to take place in person before COVID. The group has published one anthology of their work, with their second, “Transitions,” coming out in mid-November.
“It’s just such a mixed bag of interesting, creative people,” Mayer said.
Speaking up more
Before COVID, the women were less keen on putting their writing out into the world. Now, at least four times a week, the South Beach friends are on the phone until midnight, work-shopping their stories and prepping for contests, according to Mayer.
Also since the pandemic struck, Mayer, who’s in her 70s, said she’s noticed that more women have spoken up during the meetings: “We have become creative on steroids. Sometimes we had 10 readers at a time.”
The two women help each other on writing. Mayer assists Patterson, whose first language is Russian, with grammar. Patterson gives Mayer suggestions on additions to her stories. Both of them see humor in almost everything, though it’s Mayer who likes to write funny stories. Many of Patterson’s are personal essays on life, love and growing up in Russia.
Even the obstacles they’ve faced are a source of amusement to them. The first time they tried to submit an original monologue to YouTube for a showcase entry at a New York theater company, they worked for hours to get the recording right.
“Finally, we concluded that, ‘Yes, we’ve done it!’,” Patterson said. “Then the file was so large, we couldn’t figure out how to send it.”
They got into the showcase. The group helped them do it. One of the writers, playwright Marj O’Neill-Butler, taught them how to write and perform monologues.
Since then, their writing has been featured and performed by professional actors in a showcase presented by the Fantasy Theatre Factory in Miami.
“We’re just thrilled, like, as if we were going off-Broadway,” Mayer said.
‘Find your tribe’
Though the meetings focus on the work, the writers group has also been a haven of emotional support. Mayer was in the group when she lost her husband and again when her mother died.
“All of them were there for me,” Mayer said. “Everyone supports everyone.”
Sharing writing, she said, also means sharing emotions, even when they are difficult ones: “Whether someone is, you know, going through a drug rehab in your family, or someone is ill, or a marriage falls apart, or relationship falls apart, or you wish you could be closer to your grandchildren.”
But there is great joy in celebrating the successes together, too.
“When you find somebody who sees the world in the same kind of view as you, it’s just so rewarding,” Patterson said. “If there’s any takeaway from this, it is, whatever you do, find your tribe.”
You can read more of Patterson and Mayer’s stories on their Vocal Media author pages.
This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
.jpg)
