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Joanne Ahladiotis: Going All Out, All the Time

 

Joanne Ahladiotis never did anything halfway. She dressed impeccably and had her nails done once a week. She entertained regularly, making all the food herself. She took great pride in her small apartment in Forest Hills, Queens. "At Christmas," said her sister, Effie Salloum, "she would decorate her apartment like it was Macy's windows."

Fluent in Greek, Ms. Ahladiotis, 27, traveled to Greece every two years to visit her grandmother, who lives in Crete, and returned home laden with gifts of icons, jewelry, books and cookies. In fact, Ms. Ahladiotis could scarcely go anywhere without buying presents for her family and friends. "If she was out shopping and she found something she liked but they didn't have it in her size, she would buy it for me," her sister said.

The week before she died, Ms. Ahladiotis, who worked for the eSpeed division of Cantor Fitzgerald, had to travel to Las Vegas on business. She invited her parents to accompany her. "It was the most beautiful week of my life," said her mother, Eleni. "She was a very loving person."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times