Love, Loss and What She Wore

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ELLE (U.S.)

April, 2012

In second grade, that age at which one is compelled to declare a favorite in all things, my favorite TV show was Dallas. I loved it because my actress aunt, Taty (our version of the French tatie, or "auntie"), who did voice-overs in Paris, was the Gallic Linda Gray. The show's French version was a couple of seasons behind the American original that I watched with my parents on Friday nights, so on Saturday mornings, I'd listen to my mom sharing plot intel with her sister, consoling her with updates on Sue Ellen Ewing's alcoholism: "Non, ne t'inquiete pas. Elle se saoule toujours." ("Don't worry, she still gets drunk.") I learned to worry that Sue Ellen would get shot or, worse, go to rehab and discover sobriety and conjugal contentment. A well-pickled Sue Ellen meant a professionally thriving and prosperous Taty.

 

My aunt at the time seemed to me as dramatic and inordinately glamorous as the characters she played. Even her name, Evelyn (pronounced "Ehv-leen") S