Linda Tessner

I remember once at lunchtime, I was saying, oh, Susan, I really, those earrings, I just love them.

And she immediately popped them off her ears and handed them to me and said, I want you to have them.

She was generous like that.

She was extremely generous.

There were moth holes and the mannequins themselves, some of them had to be resoldered and some things had to be recreated.

And then maybe the most vexing thing was that

Well-meaning volunteers over the years had changed all the clothes.

So they were in no way were they in their original ensembles.

Well, I remember I had bought outfits for all of these events that were taking place in Paris.

And I thought I knew what I was doing.

But the minute I got to Paris, Susan wanted to, like, what did you bring?

So I took all of the clothes that I had brought from home to her apartment one Saturday.

And she was like, no.

No.

No.

There was nothing wrong with Linda's look, but Susan was just on a whole other level.

I ended up, because she was so disapproved of what I had brought from Oregon, I ended up wearing a lot of her clothes to these events.

I think it was important to her that I looked a certain way, and I certainly did not want to disappoint her.

Whenever I came to Paris, Susan always made sure there were flowers in my hotel room when I arrived.

The most astonishing bouquets, like a profusion of pink lilies.