Telephone of the Wind

Thanks to local citizens, Amy Hance-Brancati and Greg Brancati, Seahurst Park now has its own Telephone of the Wind.   This special vintage rotary phone, sited along a beautiful and secluded trail just above the Marine Technology Lab at the north end of the park, is for those who have lost a loved one.  It’s an outlet for messages they wish to share with lost friends and family.  It’s a phone for memories and saying goodbyes they never got to say.  Amy and Greg were inspired to create the Telephone of the Wind after visiting Squaxin Park in Olympia. This project was something they felt they could do to support their community and honor the death of their son, Lewis Brancati, in 2017.  Their unique creation was installed on Saturday, August 19, 2023 and is dedicated to his memory.

The original Telephone of the Wind was created in Japan in 2010 by garden designer, Itaru Sasaki.  According to Sasaki, the “wind phone” was designed as a way to reflect on the loss of a loved one.  In an interview, he stated: “Because my thoughts couldn’t be relayed over a regular phone line, I wanted them to be carried on the wind.”  In 2011, the devastating Tōhoku tsunami caused the deaths of more than 15,000 people in Japan.  Sasaki subsequently opened his wind phone to the public to allow visitors to call their friends and family who had died in the disaster.  Wind telephones have since become popular inspiring replicas around the world as well as books and films.