Red Dress Diva

Mom's friend, Leif Pareli, sent me a wonderful story about mom:

"There is quite a bit about our lives in [Alexandria] in [the email archives you found, but] not the episode when [Linda] asked me to be her escort to a garden party in the American consulate that she had been invited to. We arrived - last minute - at the main entrance and walked through a hallway opening up to the broad, impressive stairs leading down to the garden, which was already crowded with everybody that was anything in Alexandria. Halfway down the stairs she suddenly grabbed my arm and guffawed out this loud laughter, like I had just been telling a hilarious joke. Actually I had just been making small talk, but she got exactly what she wanted: Everybody turned around and looked at us, as we continued making our entrance down these operetta-style stairs - a VERY efficient way of getting everybody's attention!"

Mom, of course, was wearing a red dress. Classic Linda.