At the Flamenco Hotel, Cairo

This photograph was taken during what was probably the second or third time that Ragia and Mom had met, and perhaps the first or second that Farah had met mom and Sarah. On this trip, which took place in 2000, I saw Sarah for the first time since mom and my siblings moved back to America in 1993.

Mom and I had parted on somewhat shaky terms in 1993. During this visit, we were both quite anxious to repair our relationship, and our nervousness showed. These were wonderful times for me. A few days later, mom and Sarah attended my wedding.

The Flamenco Hotel, which is part of a Spanish hotel chain, was mom's favorite hotel in the world. She loved the place. She always tried to get a certain room (it may or may not have been 515), because it overlooked the Nile and had a huge arched window.

At this point in time, mom was also quite happy. She even had plans to get married at one point.



Clockwise from far left: Mom, Sarah, Ragia, and Farah.

Linda Oldham, Fashion Designer

Years ago, mom took it upon herself to become a seamstress; in addition to working 8-12 hours every day, she would also make all of our clothes. How this made any sense, we will never know. What we do know is that she became astonishingly good at it. I remember the brown 5-pocket Bermuda shorts she made me.

There are no photos of these creations, but we do have photos of items that not only involve creative seamstressing, but also creative fashion design. The photos here show costumes that mom made for scratch for Aziza and Osman for a school party. It might have been for Halloween, but I cannot be certain.

Aren't they wonderful? Yes, the costumes and the kids both.


Aziza's costume was some sort of princess (or maybe She-ra from Masters of the Universe). Osman's was Superman.

Linda in 1947 or 1948

Cairo, 2000

This is mom when she was a healthy, slim, and gorgeous 56-year-old in August or September, 2000. She was in Cairo at the time, and she and Sarah stayed a few days with Ragia, Farah and Me. I can't quite place the restaurant, but I assure you that the food was great. How do I know this? Well, mom was eating there, right?


If you didn't already know this, you can click on almost any of photos I post here to get higher-resolution versions. Go ahead and save them to your computer, if you wish.

Sylvia Re: Linda in Chador

Sylvia responded to the last post as follows:

When Linge came to visit me in Seattle, she brought a 5 inch stack of photographs. She was planning on visiting her mother after she left Seattle and the photographs were for her mother, but she let me look at them. Interspersed with the photographs were 6 to 8 photos of Linge in chador. She said they were in there to tease her mother who was very concerned that Linge might actually wear chador. She did, however, give me one of them, and I did a small painting of her in chador which hangs in my home studio. Almost everyone who sees it thinks it is me in chador. Linge and I were often asked if we were sisters. We both thought we looked a little alike. Maybe with the mouth and lower face covered we really do. Or maybe, all of my paintings look more like me than the intended subject. I looked for the photograph to send you, but couldn't find it. I will scan the painting and send that.

I, for one, am very interested in seeing the painting You will all see it as soon as I have it, if I have Sylvia's permission.

Sylvia:
1. May I?
2. You paint? I would love to see your work.

Linda in Chador

During the period mom lived in Egypt, a predominantly Muslim country, she wore the full veil...

...for exactly long enough to take a few pictures!

Sudan, 1999

I'm not sure why mom appears to be frowning in consternation, but there does seem to be some sort of argument going on between the driver of the Hantour (horse carriage) she is riding and some other person. It is easy to imagine that the other person is another driver and that they are arguing about who should rightfully drive the foreign woman and get (they think) the higher fare.

I apologize for the quality, but the original is not the best.