I am in London for a bit longer but my heart is in New York City today, with the friends and family of Jane Clark Chermayeff. I count myself as one of them, though I think that everyone who met Jane felt that she was immediately their friend. She was a force: for good and for children and for play and for playgrounds and for whatever made them better. Jane was one of the first people to believe that what I was doing and saying at Playscapes was important. After enduring years of slights and criticisms from playground ‘insiders’ as a mere blogger, her acceptance and encouragement of my ‘outsiders’ voice nearly brought me to tears, and helped me continue on at a critical point in the blog’s life. Jane invited me to MoMA and included me in her round-table discussions and we had made more exciting plans for new play initiatives when she was suddenly stricken, and ultimately taken from those who knew and loved her far better than I. They gather in her city today to remember, and I add my own small but grateful commemoration to their memorial. I’ll remember Jane today, and whenever I see a swing, in honor of her life and her favorite saying. “Life without a swing is a misunderstanding.” Jane Clark Chermayeff 1950-2014
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