Wind phone installed at Highlands Family Success Center to support those grieving

A new wind phone has been installed at the Highlands Family Success Center, providing a peaceful place for people grieving the loss of a loved one to reflect and speak aloud as part of the healing process.

The project was created by Karen Thompson, who learned about wind phones after joining a grief support group following the death of her husband of 61 years. The disconnected telephones, typically placed in quiet outdoor settings, allow visitors to hold conversations with loved ones who have died as a way of coping with grief.

Finding that no wind phones existed in northern New Jersey, Thompson and her daughter, Lori, built a wooden enclosure with benches to house the phone. Thompson’s son, Keith, helped install it on the banks of a pond at the Highlands Family Success Center, 1546 Union Valley Road. Thompson also stocked the site with books about grief that visitors may borrow.

The wind phone was dedicated July 8 in memory of Thompson’s husband, Keith. The date coincided with what would have been his birthday. West Milford Mayor Michele Dale and a representative from the Highlands Family Success Center attended the dedication.

The concept of the wind phone originated in Japan in 2010, when Itaru Sasaki installed a disconnected rotary telephone in a garden after the death of his cousin. Sasaki said he wanted his thoughts to be “carried on the wind” because they could no longer be delivered over a telephone line.

After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan claimed thousands of lives, Sasaki opened the site to the public, allowing others to use the phone to process their grief. The idea spread internationally, and there are now thousands of wind phones located in parks, cemeteries, churches, hospices, memorial sites and other quiet locations throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

The Highlands Family Success Center wind phone is available to anyone wishing to remember or speak with a loved one who has died.