A personal remembrance inspired by Queen Elizabeth’s last photo.
Her Last Photo
Originally published in September 2022 in Blog
Say no to racism
Originally published in July 2018 in Blog
I grew up in a multi-racial family. From left to right: Catherine, Alison, Richard, Trevor, Peter, and our 1972 orange Volvo wagon. My brothers and I were born at time when Martin Luther King Jr. was doing his most important work, standing up to segregationists in Georgia and organizing non-violent protests in Alabama. Meanwhile, a […]
Missing them
Originally published in March 2018 in Blog, Illustration, Toronto Illustrators
Andy Warhol’s Wig
Originally published in December 2017 in Blog
Wrecking ball
Originally published in May 2017 in Blog
I let my dad down. Trevor was an architect, and earlier this week one of his modernist designs, the Fawcett House (1966), was torn down to make room for something new and improved. Thomas Allen wrote an eloquent and heartfelt lament about it in The Inlet, saying, “the tranquil courtyard, barrel-vaulted roof with celestial windows, […]
We work for society
Originally published in October 2016 in Blog
“We work for society.” This is how my dad, Trevor Garwood-Jones (1928-2011), described an architect’s responsibilities to the communities they build in. Buildings house our existing emotions, but also create new ones — some drab, some inspired depending on the quality of the design. Beauty was key, in Trevor’s mind, to building empathy and a sense […]
Rabbit remembered
Originally published in March 2014 in Blog
Home
Originally published in December 2013 in Blog
After you lose your parents, You start to wonder if your family ever existed. That feeling of being part of a team alters, Then disintegrates over time. New alliances form. Continents and decades are crossed in a valiant search for that next Home. Siblings become more like old classmates, People you used to know because […]
What’s your name?
Originally published in December 2013 in Blog
Having an unusual name is like hitting the jackpot from a search engine standpoint. There are plenty of Alison Joneses in the world, and even more when you throw in the alternate spellings of Allison/Allyson/Alyson/Alisson. But Google suggests that I am the only Alison Garwood-Jones. I went to high school with an Alison Jones, a […]
Remains of the day
Originally published in May 2013 in Blog
I got a lot of moving feedback the first time I wrote about my mother, Catherine, in The Long Goodbye, published three years ago on this blog. After she died last Christmas, I expanded on the story of our relationship and turned it into a magazine piece for Glow Magazine. It’s in the May issue, on newsstands […]
