‘Grief has a way of uniting communities’: Wind Telephones spreading across Tennessee
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — After attaching a bright orange, vintage telephone to a tree tucked away in a wooded Clarksville park back in August, the first person Freah Price called was her grandfather.
While the phone is not physically connected to anything, Price said her grandfather seemingly left a message for her after she returned to her car that day and found two cardinals — a bird that some believe symbolizes a visit from a deceased loved one.
“A few weeks later I had gotten a message from a woman who had discovered my Wind Phone and she had visited it, and she took a picture and she’s like, ‘Oh there’s a bird’s nest in here’,” Price said. “I was like, ‘Oh maybe it’s a cardinal nest’… it was really cool.”
The disconnected phone at Billy Dunlop Park in Clarksville is among three “Wind Phones” scattered across Tennessee, with a fourth one currently being built in Waynesboro. However, just about a year ago the concept, which is meant to help people deal with grief, was completely absent from the state.
Allison Young, a cancer research nurse at Vanderbilt University, spearheaded the project when she built Tennessee’s first Wind Telephone in her front yard in East Nashville in February 2023. Since then, it has hosted nearly 100 people who have come to “call” their deceased loved ones.
“My mom and I were very, very close, so I opened a can of worms as soon as I started talking. So, it was anger, and then it was sadness, and then it was just relief,” said Xorabe Lopez, who used the phone to call her mom on her birthday and say goodbye.
SEE ALSO: Things ‘left unsaid’: Tennessee’s first wind telephone offers solace to people grieving
When something tragic happens like the loss of life, there are many ways for people to deal with grief, such as grief support groups or talking with friends and family, but “sometimes you just need something different,” Young explained back when her phone first opened to the public.
“You need to have as many options as you can for them so that you’re not losing out on helping a big group of people because you’re assuming that everyone grieves the exact same way,” Young said.
The idea originates from the “Phone of the Wind,” which is located over 6,000 miles away in Ōtsuchi, Japan. After losing his cousin to cancer, the Wind Phone’s creator, Itaru Sasaki, purchased an old-fashioned phone booth and set it up in his garden.
Sasaki found healing amid his grief by having “conversations” with his cousin and later welcomed mourners to make their own calls in 2011 after a 9.1 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami with 30-foot waves caused thousands of casualties in the city.
Over 100 people visit Wind Telephone in East Nashville to help grieve
“I think it helps people to say all of the things that they never got to say to their loved one,” Price said. “I think doing it verbally is really helpful, and even writing letters to them is really helpful. Just having a way to get that out, it’s therapeutic.”
Price was inspired to bring the concept to Clarksville in August 2023 after hearing about the opening of the East Nashville Wind Phone a few months prior. As with many Wind Phone creators, Price has regularly dealt with grief in her own capacity.
In her work as a trained death doula, she advocates for and helps support grieving families and their loved ones as they reach the end of life. “So, I wanted to create a space for them to find solace in their grief,” Price said.
While the East Nashville Wind Phone and some others are modeled off of old telephone booths, Price used a bit of a different design. A tree is the main support for the Clarksville Wind Phone, but so as not to damage the tree, Price said she and her husband secured it using ratchet straps.
“If you’re thrifting or you have anyone that wants to donate something, you can work your way around it and be as creative as possible,” Price said. A message on the phone box describes its purpose in giving people a chance to say, “the goodbyes you never got to say.”
She collaborated with the City of Clarksville to find the location at Billy Dunlop Park, which Price said she thought would be “a beautiful place to put something like that,” with a nearby river running by the Wind Phone and lots of foot traffic in the area.
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Since moving to Ohio in September, Price now has a steward who takes care of the phone in her absence but said she has received a few messages from people who have used it to make calls, with more people beginning to stumble upon the phone this year.
Price believes the increasing popularity of Wind Telephones in the state can be attributed to not only more awareness, but people seeking new ways to share experiences and deal with grief together.
“I think more people are getting more inspired to create these and I think a lot of these people, they’ve dealt with grief themselves,” she said. “And so, I think it really helps bring the community together. Grief has a way of uniting communities.”
It’s not just Tennessee where Wind Telephones have gained popularity. The idea began spreading across the country before the first Wind Phone was built in the state. Today, 42 states have at least one Wind Phone, and several like California, Florida and North Carolina have five or more. Alabama is the only neighboring state to Tennessee without a Wind Telephone.
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The third Wind Phone in Tennessee can be found at the Grandview Cemetery in Maryville, which has several self-guided grief support stations for families. The exact GPS location of each Wind Phone is provided online. To find the closest one to you, click here.
“Our families, our deceased loved ones are always with us and they are listening,” Price said. “I hope whoever stumbles upon a Wind Phone anywhere, I hope you find your cardinal and I hope you receive some confirmation that your loved one is always nearby and always with you.”
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