Wind phone installed at Idaho funeral home offers healing conversations for grieving loved ones

NAMPA (KIVI) — Just outside Alsip & Persons Funeral Home in Nampa stands a unique phone, waiting for anyone grieving the loss of a loved one. This ‘wind phone’ offers a chance for people to speak to those they’ve lost, providing an opportunity to say the things that were left unsaid.

Christine Soza, an end-of-life doula, emphasizes the significance of this opportunity.

“And I think that, especially with the wind phone, it’s important to encourage people to speak those words out loud,” Soza said. “I think sudden losses can be more difficult because we don’t get to say our last goodbyes.”

Soza had long dreamed of bringing a wind phone to the Treasure Valley. That dream was realized when 17-year-old Girl Scout Katie Beaton took on the project to earn her Gold Award, a distinction achieved by only around 5% of Girl Scouts.

“I’m very proud of myself for earning the Gold Award,” Beaton said. “It’s a good way to get a scholarship through Girl Scouts, and I desperately want to go to college… It also means I’m able to help my community in a way that matters to me.”

For both Beaton and Soza, the project was deeply personal.

“My mom and dad aren’t my actual mom and dad; they’re my grandparents,” Beaton explained. “I was adopted by them as an infant, and they raised me as their daughter. We found out my granddad had cancer everywhere in his body, and he passed away on New Year’s Eve.”

Soza shared her own emotional connection. “I still have my parents’ phone numbers in my phone. They’ve been gone for several years, and sometimes I wish I could just have them pick up the phone on the other end. That personal longing is why I wanted to bring this to the community,” she said.

The wind phone now stands as a testament to the power of spoken words and the community’s resilience in the face of loss.

RELATED | Kansas man builds phone booth for grievers to ‘call’ deceased loved ones