We Called Her “Buddy”
Her voice was ever soft, Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman. William Shakespeare, King Lear , Act 5, Scene 3 Her face was round and soft and wrinkled, the way a grandmother’s face should be. She had a warm smile and a quiet laugh. Her full name was Lorena Oretha Gill Skaggs, but we all called her “Buddy.” She was born in 1905 in Fayette County, West Virginia, and she died seventy-three years later in Fayette County, West Virginia. She was mother to four children but gave birth to only one. She was of small stature and somewhat shy, but she had an inner strength that allowed her to placidly take things as they came, responding with a quiet, “Well . . .” She married my paternal grandfather, Weston Wills Skaggs, in 1936, and they remained married until her death. She was Weston’s second wife. Eva Grace Holliday Skaggs Weston’s first wife, my paternal grandmother, was Eva Grace Holliday, who was born on July 11, 1906. According to one of her cousins, “Eva was a ...