The Wind Phone in North Kingstown is Where Healing Begins
A disconnected phone booth at the Quonset Point Bike Path offers visitors another way to process grief, one conversation at a time.
From left: Tasha Moody, HopeHealth grief support group attendee; Deanna Upchurch, HopeHealth’s senior director of community relations and clinical outreach; Melissa Devine, who championed the wind phone after participating in a HopeHealth grief support group; and Marsha Ireland, HopeHealth’s grief support manager. Photo courtesy of HopeHealth RI.
Grieving is an individual process, but that doesn’t mean it has to be done without community support. That’s the lesson that Melissa Devine learned after joining one of HopeHealth RI’s grief support groups, which led her to envision the recent installment along the Quonset Point Bike Path in North Kingstown. Devine’s wind phone — a disconnected phone booth where people can talk to loved ones who have passed — was installed on June 16, thanks to the handiwork of local craftsman Jim O’Neil and funding from the North Kingstown Arts Council.
The idea started with a book that was recommended to Devine by the group — Laura Imai Messina’s novel The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, which takes inspiration from the true story of the first wind phone created by Itaru Sasaki in Japan in 2010.
As the primary caregiver for both of her parents in their final years, Devine describes not wanting to address her grief following her mother’s death, which came three years after her father’s. “After you lose a loved one, you kind of run from talking to anyone about it… I didn’t really want to face the hurt that you go through after losing your mom or dad, or anyone you love, for that matter.”
About a year after her mother’s death, Devine decided she needed help, and thanks to HopeHealth RI’s outreach, she knew where to find it. Both of Devine’s parents had been in hospice care with HopeHealth, and the organization reached out with support services after their deaths.
Through the support she received from the grief groups and the resources she had been recommended, such as The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, the idea of creating an alternative outlet for grief took root.
Melissa Devine using the wind phone for the first time. Photo courtesy of HopeHealth RI.
Since coming to fruition, the wind phone in North Kingstown has already made an impact on the local community. In addition to the words sent via wind, visitors have written messages to loved ones in the journals Devine has added at the location.
Marsha Ireland, HopeHealth RI’s grief support manager, describes the needs that the wind phone was created to meet. “We need a place to put our grief, put our words, when we lose someone we love deeply,” Ireland says. The wind phone serves as that “tangible” means of addressing and working through grief.
Though Devine found great relief in the grief groups she attended, she recognizes the challenge of opening yourself up to a room of strangers. “That’s hard to do,” she says. “Probably one of the most vulnerable moments of your life is grieving a cherished loved one. You’re really at an emotional low.”
Even if you’re not ready for that kind of vulnerability, you still have to (as Devine says) “write the check” and work towards a happier future in the wake of loss.
In a secluded spot on the Quonset Point Bike Path, there’s now a way to do just that.
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