A handful of “wind telephone” booths have popped up around Middle Tennessee in the last few years. They’re inspired by the originator in Japan, who put a phone booth in his garden so he could have a place to commune with his cousin who died from cancer.
There are now hundreds around the world, in various forms, including in the East Nashville front yard of Allison Stillwell Young, a cancer research nurse who also specializes in thanatology (the study of death, dying and bereavement).
People looking to connect with a loved one can enter into the 1940s phone booth, which she found in Mississippi, pick up an old rotary phone, and dial their loved one. Some return over and over. Many leave thank you notes. She’s collected 200 since installing the booth in 2023.
“It’s good to have something to ground you while you are experiencing these communications,” Young said. “I really think that adds a different level to the process of grieving.”
A locator map shows there’s a home near Bellevue and another in Burns that host wind telephones. Nashville’s Green Hills Park and Clarksville’s Billy Dunlap Park have their own booths.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM