Linda Scaggs: So Much More than Just a Co-Worker and Friend

Linda Scaggs: So Much More than Just a Co-Worker and Friend

Linda Scaggs and I had several things in common. We shared the same first name. We had both spent part of our childhood in St. Albans, WV. We both had a thing about grammar and punctuation.

There were also the ways we weren’t alike. She was a rule follower. Me, not so much. She always said the trip hadn’t started until I had made the first illegal u-turn. She wouldn’t say “s_ _t” if she had a mouthful of it. I once felt it necessary to give up the “f word”for Lent. Her underwear always matched her outfit. I only had beige and black.

I guess the similarities and differences evened out because we became fast friends.

 

The year was 1986 and I was a newly sworn in lawyer. She was job hunting and ended up at Bordas & Bordas. We had bought the office on National Road. I was fixing it up a room at a time as we added staff. I had two young children, two dogs, two cats, and a husband that was even busier than I was. I was trying to be a lawyer. And God sent me Linda. She was a secretary, a bookkeeper, she picked up kids at school when a deposition ran late, she picked fleas off the dogs and drowned them in a cup of water, she managed to get the cat into a crate if it needed to go to the vet. If Jim and I had to be out of town at the same time, she ran the office. I think she invented the term “multitasking”. She screened job applicants before I interviewed them. She told me when I had a run in my hose. Yes, we wore hose back then.

Those were the details. The rest became a rich history of friendship. We had our own booth at Bob Evans. Occasionally they let someone else sit in it. We spent the bad afternoons at the creek behind the Dairy Queen drowning our sorrows in a Blizzard.

We spent the good afternoons at the creek behind the Dairy Queen laughing in a Blizzard. She kept my secrets and I kept hers. In spite of her aversion to breaking the Commandments, she told me that if I ever killed anybody, she would help me bury the body because she would know that I did it for the right reason.

She was sad she didn’t have children. I told her she could share mine. She broke up their fights in the halls of the office. She took pride in their accomplishments. She loved them and would dare anybody to say a bad word about them. She told me she loved my husband. I told her I was glad.

She had never had a dog. When our Springer Spaniel Daisy got cancer and had surgery and radiation treatments at Ohio State, Linda took her to her follow-up appointments. She stopped to buy her chicken nuggets at McDonalds every single time to make up for the trauma.  Daisy decided she was hers. She spent most afternoons at Linda’s feet behind her desk.

She often had to pretend to be me on the phone to get something accomplished. She didn’t think it was lying because she could say “Yes, this is Linda”. I was Catholic. Second rate. Linda always reminded me that she was Baptist born and Baptist bred and when she died, she would be Baptist dead. I went to her Church for special occasions. She decided friendship had to have its limits and she drew a line in the sand. She loved Pastor Darrin. Linda loved to sing, to bowl and to go to the mall. She collected Hummels, pianos, and Beanie Babies. Her favorite places were the beach and Church. Andrea, Dawn and Dionne were her besties. Jeanne was her partner in crime at the office. Sonny was her man. When she wrote to her sisters, she signed “Love you . Miss you. XOXO.” And to me. I got to have a sister. I had three brothers, but I had never had a sister.

Linda’s Mother died an early death from Alzheimer’s. She made me promise I would tell her if I thought she was getting it. I waited until I was sure. Just as an extra precaution I did a test for Alzheimer’s. That was the day she learned to curse. I lost Linda a little bit at a time. Maybe God thought it would be too hard to lose her all at once. It was a lot to lose. A sister, a keeper of secrets, somebody to help you bury the body. Friends like that don’t come along very often. They are angels. Eventually, they go back home.