Memories, Stories, Celebrations
of Alison
We would love to hear your favorite memories, stories, thoughts, and experiences of Alison.
Please email them to me along with any photos of her and I'll add them to this website.
Thank you! Alex
As of October 27th, 2022
Alison arrived by train in Calgary where I was living in the mid eighties. She was staying with me for a few days so after meeting her at the station we went back to my place for tea and to get settled. It was still morning so a late breakfast was prepared. We sat down to eat and she reached into her purse and pulled out a jar of Marmite! Never had a house guest brought her own spread to breakfast....We had a great laugh about the fact she never travelled without it.
The next time we were together was at Kate and Terry's wedding. All the ladies were so glamorous their in English Garden party dresses and big hats!
Fast forward to 2014. We are in Palm Springs over Christmas and decide to drive to Prescott for a visit right after the New Year. Janet and I arrive at her amazing Sunset Butte cottage to a hearty welcome and copious amounts of Champagne! Over a dinner of pasta and homemade puttanesca sauce we drank more wine, stayed up late and shared stories about her remarkable life. Pushkin the cat was lazing about, it really was a cozy idyllic setting. Shortly after we returned home Janet joined a wine club....now we always have champagne in the house! And puttanesca sauce is a go to meal.
-Alec Macdonald
I loved your mum, Alison, as did so many others. Every Friday when our group meets, l miss Alison, her voice, laugh, twinkle and her wonderful sharing.
-Donja Jarrett
Alison was my hero. I was in her field of love.
-Carlena Hart
May her love and courage continue to resonate in this world.
-Anonymous
I met Alison in 1990, when I arrived at Prescott. Although she was never officially my advisor, she advised me, along with Walt Anderson, my official advisor and also a dear friend, for my time at PC. From that time, to this day, she has been a constant close friend, advisor, and loved one. We never drifted apart and over the years, she never stopped sending love, caring, wisdom, and advice. My heart will always be filled with love for her. May she remained blessed.
-Phoenix Vamvakias (Zeph)
I will miss Alison very much, she was a ray of sunshine in my day. I first met her in a water aerobics class where she and I shared the giggles - I will never forget her laugh. What I loved most about Alison was her joy. She was joyful about everything! About a visit from one of her grandchildren, about the birds singing in the morning, about her new porch, about the flowers blooming, about the wind whistling through the trees, about the kindness of her neighbors, about the fresh snow on the boulders - she loved it all! She was kind, thoughtful and accepting. I will miss her British accented voice on my answering machine. Alison loved life and she lived hers well.
-Judie Helgeson
My dearest friend and teacher Alison,
We met some 45 years ago at your home in Oxford and you taught me English Literature but you were so much more than a teacher. You recognized my loneliness and desperate insecurities and guided me through Shakespeare’s “King Lear” like a life coach.
With quotations that will stay with me forever you introduced me to the deeper meanings of life, of love, of friendship, betrayal and desolation: “See better Lear”; Nothing will come of nothing”; “How sharper than a serpents tooth it is to have a thankless child” and the momentous line “the wheel has come full circle, I am here.”
We lost touch in the interim years but found each other again when I moved to Greece in 2003, by then you were living in the USA. At least once a month we spoke on the phone but exchanged emails frequently, speaking of life and world events of spirit and soul of hope and faith and everything that touched our lives in between, not least the cats we loved so much!
Your friendship was a gift and a privilege because you knew what was in my heart and SAW ME AS I AM.
And now that wheel has come full circle and you are gone and I am here remembering with a heart filled with gratitude for all that you were to me.
Thank you Alison for all that you were in the lives of so many you touched with your compassion, your extraordinary gift of teaching and your wonderful unconditional friendship.
We were all so blessed to know you and I will miss you more than I can say.
With all my love,
Granville Lee-Warner
As of October 25th, 2022
Over the last 30 years I have known Alison we have interacted in many settings and played different ‘roles’ for each other. We accessed and opened up places within each other and ourselves that had not previously been explored. We exchanged student/teacher/mentor ‘role’ in each interaction. I always came away from these interactions with precious gifts of wisdom, deepened self understanding and challenges to explore both internal and external life from a new perspective.
When she was teaching at Prescott College, Alison would share her Adult Degree class curriculum with me and often I would explore the themes of the papers she would ask her students to write about. One of them was : What is happiness? We had wonderful conversations about what I wrote, what others wrote as well as her thoughts about the subjects.
She shared both her love for her spiritual teacher Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, and lent me his books to read. We shared philosophical and spiritual ideas with each other and found much in common. We explored other avenues of self understanding with each other such as natural health, body work, astrology, Human Design, essential oils, Bach flower remedies.
I consider Alison as one of the top five women who have had the greatest influence on my life.
After a conversation I had with her in June of this year this the following thoughts came to me which I shared with her.
Alison, my friend is so aptly named, as at her core she embodies ALL IS SON/SUN. ALL IS ONE.
Alison embodies the all ness/the oneness that is the SON, the CHRIST, at one with Creator/Source/ the Isness .
Alison, my friend who awaits each rising son/sun and is bathed and nourished in its light.
Alison, my friend who shares the words, the music and the songs that ring in her ears all the day long.
Alison, my friend who shared the image she saw of herself as the dancing girl she now carries within her heart.
Alison, I witness your wholeness and unity with ALL THAT IS and I am blessed.
Loving you with all my heart and more, Kathaleen Kientz
As of September 28th, 2022
My friend and sister, Alison. What a lady, sister and friend was Alison Holmes – very intelligent, generous, amusing, welcoming, warm and loving heart, and a wonderful communicator both orally and in writing. Her letters were the most inspirational and descriptive I have ever received!
Ever since I first knew her or she became a wonderful friend, she was a larger than life character – flamboyant, forthright and always dressed from top in toe in glorious colour. She seemed to flow through life talking to this person, that person, all people, communicating her wisdom and encouraging them to work with the light or exchanging with them on whatever interested them… Then she would promote them in the way she thought best….
She was a formidable leader of a spiritual group in Oxford in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s attracting young people from all walks of life to do better and think more deeply about life. Her house was open and music resonated out of every window any Sunday morning when she was expecting visitors…. It was comfortable, homely, and very welcoming.
When the family moved house, she moved the meetings of light to St John’s College, St Giles, Oxford where she included many more people. She also translated many lectures of the Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov from French to English which are still in use! She was also a very inspiring teacher of English and a wonderful writer herself, although she never considered that she was any good. Her letters and articles were always very descriptive so that the reader could always imagine landscapes, or scenarios with ease. During her middle years she disappeared for a while as she travelled a great deal and moved to the USA. But in recent years she re-made contact with many people who helped her in all sorts of ways in the final few years of life. She continued to be an inspiration, and questioned life from all angles even though life became much more difficult for her. She will remain in our hearts forever with a deep-felt gratitude for her presence in our lives.
- Helen Howard 26.9.2022
As of September 18th, 2022
I think Alison may have been one of the wisest human beings I have ever known. I am so grateful that our paths crossed. It is a cliche, I know, but she changed my life for the better, and I often reflect on our long discussions in her little house in the Dells. I hope and believe that a little of her spirit lives on in every life she touched.
-Mandy Bratton
Alison was a long time customer and friend of One Root Tea downtown Prescott. She love love loved English Breakfast and would order by the pound. We so loved her English accent, her humor, her grace, her matter of fact-ness and down to earth-ness, her obvious deep intelligence. I will light a candle for her at One Root and toast some English breakfast tea in her honor. I say bravo Alison, for a life well lived!
-Margaret Mendoza
Alison was a dear friend to me during and after my time at Prescott College. She was my neighbor for 3 years in the beautiful Granite Dells, and it was the time I spent living so close to her that has shaped me into the person I am today. I remember sitting in her living room watching the wood ducks float by on the creek below while she sat in her glorious purple armchair surrounded by books. I will miss her so very much.
-Elissa Shaw
Alison (or Meimei as I called her) was and continues to be a strong and encouraging presence in my life. I feel the tug to call Meimei to share whenever I see a beautiful thing, have a strong connection with someone, cook something delicious, go on a hike, slow down to observe my own reactions, or snuggle into the comfy sheets she bought me. She taught me that it's possible to be strong, fearless, warm, and loving all at the same time. Her encouragement, sense of wonder, and reminder to me to always "stay curious" have been a strong line throughout my life. From being a small child hearing the stories of Mingus Mountain Meg, to making up stories with card prompts from around the world, to feeling her love when I was struggling as a teenager, to traveling the world and hearing what it was like when she had been there many years before, to finding my stride at work where she would celebrate when I had compassion and understanding for those around me, to finding Dustin and building a relationship on trust and open communication, to choosing Boulder and sharing with her the joy of being in a place where I liked myself better, and to the countless texts and Sunday afternoon calls. It hasn't sunk in that I can't call or text her but I still talk with her, every day, feeling her love and steadfastness from wherever she is now.
-Alex Frizzell (granddaughter)