My family's first Halloween without me

My wife Ragia reminds me of the family's first Halloween without me. In 2002 I was in Bahrain for work, and my wife, still new to the US, did not know how to get to the good trick-or-treating neighborhoods in Hillsborough, NC.

When she heard about the problem, my mother put on her finest (no costume, but I am sure it was colorful and elegant) and took them.

As my sister Sarah, then 16, and my Daughter Farah went from door to door, my mother and Ragia walked with them. My mother ate all the candy corn and told stories about her friends Bechir Chourou and David Tavakoli.

Good times.

Incidentally, I am looking for Bechir (who I know) and David (who I don't). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We don't eat people

My mother loved to sing to us, her kids. One of the earliest songs I remember her singing was one she made up herself, apparently when I started to teethe (and bite her). It went like this:

"We don't eat people.
We Don't eat people.
Eating people is bad.
Eating people iiiiissss baaaaaaaaaaad!"

Friends, colleagues, and associates say (1)

This is the first in a series of excerpts from emails sent to Linda's children by her friends, colleagues, and associates after her death. There is no rhyme or reason to the order in which the emails were selected. I will post the messages as I come across them in no particular order.

Ragui Assaad was a former co-worker of Linda's in Cairo. Here is some of what he said:

"[Linda Oldham] was not only a top notch social scientist and researcher, but also an incredible coach who nurtured and supported more junior colleagues. She always provided constructive criticism and was tough when she needed to be. Her insistence on quality and clarity in writing left a permanent mark on my subsequent career. She was very supportive when I applied for grad school in 1984, helping me with my personal statement on my applications and drafting a very strong recommendation letter in support of my application. I have since pursued a successful career as a professor of public policy and planning at the University of Minnesota and I am sure I can attribute at least some of this success to the mentoring I received from Linda."

Ragui Assaad is the Population Council's Regional Director for West Asia and North Africa .

Authors Linda loved and their books

My mother was, as you probably know, an avid reader. She read a wide range of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. The following list is not intended to be complete, nor can it be, but it does contain a sampling of the authors she loved and some of the books they wrote:

1. P. G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse, who was always a favorite of hers, is the creator of Bertie Wooster and his butler, Jeeves. I recommend going out and purchasing Much Obliged, Jeeves immediately, if you have not had the pleasure of reading a Wodehouse novel.
2. Peter Hopkirk. Hopkirk is a journalist and author who wrote a number of historical analysis books such as Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, Trespassers on the Roof of the World, Setting the East Ablaze, and The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia.
3. Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker; the Joy of Cooking (anything prior to the controversial 1997 edition).
4. Ngaio Marsh. Marsh was, along with Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy L. Sayers, one of the four original "Queens of Crime."
5. Rex Stout--the author of the Nero Wolfe mysteries.
6. British explorer and writer Wilfred Thesiger, who wrote Arabian Sands, The Marsh Arabs, and The Last Nomad, among others.
   

As I said, this is not, by any means, a full list. I will add to it as I remember other books and authors. Do any of you remember others? If so, please post a comment.

Eulogy: Of Earthquakes and Other Disasters

On October 12th, 1992, an earthquake struck Egypt in the middle of the afternoon. The 5.9 magnitude earthquake killed 370 persons, wounded 4,000, and left more than 3,000 families homeless. To my (admittedly selfish and unapologetically biased) heart and mind, a much greater disaster struck the country exactly fifteen years later:

My mother died.

Linda Oldham was a social anthropologist. She spent her life improving the lives of others in Somalia, Uzbekistan, the West Bank/Gaza, Yemen, Vietnam, Rwanda, Jordan, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Zimbabwe, and, of course, Egypt. She helped to improve their lives by dedicating herself to helping to provide them with better jobs, better health care, better living conditions, and by simply standing up for them against all comers. She was fearless: she traveled Rwanda while hostilities continued, Upper Egypt during the peak of Egyptian terrorism, and was planning to go to Iraq. She improved the lives of such a number of the poor and needy that it would take many earthquakes to undo her work.

My mother loved Egypt. She did more to improve the lives of Egyptians than anybody else I know, and more than she did for the people of any other country. She lived there from 1976 to 1993 and, after she left, she visited as often as she could. In late summer 2007 she returned to Egypt to live (and, in hindsight, to die). As she was preparing to travel she said to me: "I never should have left Egypt" She died less than two months after she returned.

On October 12, 1992, the earth shook for a few seconds. Since October 12, 2007, my world has not stopped shaking.

I love you, Mom. Everybody does.

Jake Lester, AKA Osama Nadir
October 17, 2007