‘Telephone of the Wind’ connects to lost loved ones in Putnam
by niki@hvny.info
If you had the chance to call anyone and speak to them one more time who would you call? What would you say? A phone on the Appalachian Trail in Putnam County isn’t hooked up to any wires, but it does offer a connection to anyone who picks it up.
“Discovered a phone in the forest and had an emotional time of connection and expression to my Mom,” one hiker on the trail recently wrote. “I’d give anything to be able to share this adventure I’m on with her and this Telephone of the Wind allowed me to find a great amount of solace and comfort in her absence.”
Millet Israeli, a grief therapist with offices in Brewster and Manhattan, installed that “Telephone of the Wind” on the Appalachian Trail in Putnam County this past spring.
Israeli was inspired by garden designer Itaru Sasaki, who built a telephone booth in his garden outside of Ōtsuchi, Japan in 2010 to talk with his late cousin. After a 2011 tsunami killed a tenth of the population of Ōtsuchi, the Telephone of the Wind (kaze-no-denwa), has become a place of comfort to the tens of thousands of people who have since visited to connect with deceased loved ones.
Today, the "Telephone of the Wind" installed on the Appalachian Trail in the Clarence Fahnestock State Park helps connect to loved ones lost, especially after the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Israeli worked with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to facilitate the installation in conjunction with Evan Thompson, park manager of Fahnestock. According to Israeli, Thompson selected that section along the Appalachian Trail because it is where “many people hike because of issues in their lives.”
“That made perfect sense to me because I knew that thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail is a kind of personal pilgrimage and it felt like the perfect spot to be a source of consolation,” she added.
After the installation, Israeli set-up an Instagram account for hikers to share their experience with the wind phone. “I lost some friends during the pandemic,” one hiker wrote. “It was hard losing our jobs and lives. Thru-hiking has made me realize that I am happy to be alive and still on this planet. I almost joined my friends. I miss them so much. Truly an amazing phone.”
“I am just so comforted to know that people who needed it, made use of it and found a small bit of solace in it,” Israeli says. “That was all I hoped for when I conceived of bringing a wind phone here.”
Follow along at @wind.phone.ny on Instagram
“I am just so comforted to know that people who needed it, made use of it and found a small bit of solace in it. That was all I hoped for when I conceived of bringing a wind phone here.”
