Calling loved ones

Phone of the Wind on Digby trail offers a connection for dealing with grief

In the middle of the woods on the Van Tassel Lake trail system near Digby, there is an old green rotary phone. The phone is connected to nothing but the wind.

The Phone of the Wind is for people to call loved ones who have passed away – a way of maintaining the connection, having one more conversation, or working through their grief, says Jonathan Riley, the Trails and Open Spaces Coordinator with the Municipality of Digby.

“I lost a dear friend to cancer this past summer,” says Riley. “I’ve called Shelley three times already – as soon as we had it in place, I gave her a call. I think about her a lot; but here, in the woods, it’s nice to think of her looking down and getting caught up on how we’re all doing.”

The idea for the phone comes from a garden designer in Japan who lost a cousin to cancer and wanted to continue to feel connected to him.

In 2010 Itaru Sasaki of Ōtsuchi set up an old phone booth in his garden so he could call and reflect on his loss.

The next year a tsunami hit Japan, resulting in the deaths of thousands. Ten per cent of the people in Ōtsuchi died and so Sasaki opened his Phone of the Wind to the public, allowing people to call friends and family they had lost.

More than 30,000 people have made calls on that phone.

Since then, Phones of the Wind have sprung up around the world from New Zealand to Europe, dozens across the United States, and several in Canada.

The website, www.mywindphone.com, is making a map of these phones to help people locate the one nearest to them.

At Van Tassel Lake near Digby, the phone is set up beside the system’s newest trail – a smooth gravel pathway meant to be a short easy trail for traversing the woods and accessing the lake.

“We hoped that by setting it up here on this easy trail, not too far from the parking lot, that more people would be able to access it,” says Riley. “It’s a peaceful spot under a beautiful maple tree.”

The Phone of the Wind was dedicated in memory of Robert ‘Bob’ Saulnier. His son, Blair Saulnier, and other family members made a generous donation towards the trail association’s most recent development project.

“Dad loved being surrounded by nature,” says Saulnier. “And he could see things in nature that many of us miss. He captured it in his photography to share with others. When I was young, we spent many hours in these woods exploring, hiking, camping, fishing, and cross-country skiing together.”

Visitors who use the phone are encouraged to share their Telephone of the Wind stories on the Facebook page of the Van Tassel Lake Trails Association or tag @digby_trails on Instagram.