NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Remember landlines?
Some of us may still have them and there's a chance it's even an old rotary phone.
It's a common casual conversation of 'why not just use your cell phone?'"
One year ago, we shared a story with you about the wind telephone in East Nashville. It's not a phone with an active line, but it's a way for people to grieve by talking with someone they may have lost.
It looks like an old phone booth. Inside is a chair and a rotary phone that is not connected. Pam Bruce used it once. She dialed her son Jonathan's phone number. She knew she wouldn't hear anything on the other end of the line, but still finds comfort and a sense of healing.
Jon died of cancer at just 20 years old in 2021.
"You go inside," Bruce said. "Pick up the phone. And you can talk to your loved ones who have passed away."
Allison Young put this wind telephone in her front yard in 2023. She unveiled it on the anniversary of her grandparents' passing.
Bruce visited on what would have been Jonathan's birthday. Jonathan often went by Jon — and his mother has an interesting story about that.
"Mostly because when he started kindergarten, he had been writing Jonathan but he was like yeah I write my name too many times I'm just going to go by Jon, so he did."
As for the phone, Bruce plans on visiting on Jon's birthday. That's when she visited in 2023.
"I feel like it was so meaningful because something like this, you have to do from the heart."
The wind telephone is at 1425 Rosebank Avenue in East Nashville.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
