The Wind Phone

Welcome to our Wind Phone. We’ve created it in loving memory of our beloved children, Ruby and Hart Campbell who were killed by a drunk driver in Morongo Valley in 2019. Ruby was seventeen, a painter, digital artist, and animator who was taken from us before she could develop her talent as fully as she’d dreamed. Hart was fourteen, a hilarious actor and improviser who was the life of the party. His wild and inappropriate sense of humor was equal only to his kindness and compassion. Our loss is immeasurable. We miss and talk about them every day. We talk to them as well, but there are days when they feel so far away it’s hard to imagine our words reaching them.

Then we heard about the original Wind Phone, which was created in Japan by Itaru Sasaki while he was grieving his cousin who died of cancer. He bought an old-fashioned phone booth, set it up in his garden, and installed an obsolete rotary phone that was not connected to wires or any “earthly system.” He called it Kaze No Denwa (風の電話), which translates as The Wind Phone. Using it, Itaru felt a continued connection to his cousin and found comfort and solace amid his grief.

We were doubtful at first, but we made our own version nonetheless. The first time we picked up the receiver, dialed a number (we chose one that was a combination of their birthdays), and spoke into it, we were overwhelmed by the instantaneous sense of connection we felt. Somehow, in this private desert spot where the wind carried our words up into the air the moment we spoke them, the phone made us feel as though we were reaching them and that they could hear us.

If you’re here, please sit, relax, and take a moment to think about someone you’ve lost. Give them a call. You can have an entire conversation, or simply say I love you, and I miss you.

There’s a notebook and pen in the drawer at the bottom of the base. Please write down your name, the date of your visit, where you’re from, who you’re calling, and anything you’d like us to know about them. We’d love to read a memory, a story, or what they meant and continue to mean to you.

We hope you find the solace and comfort in our Wind Phone that we do. And if the mood strikes you, please tell Ruby and Hart that their parents love them and made a pretty cool thing in their honor.

Thank you. All love,
Gail & Colin