A unique healing space has arrived in Boise, offering neighbors a private place to connect with loved ones who have passed away.
The new Healing Wind Telephone booth, located near the Veteran Trail in the Boise Foothills, provides a quiet sanctuary for people to express their emotions and find comfort while grieving.
Mary Jane Marlow brought the idea of a wind phone in Boise after being inspired by a story she came across online.
WATCH: Take a look inside the brand new healing wind telephone booth, as it helps heal the community.
The plaque on the booth lets visitors know where the original idea came from, saying:
The first wind phone originated in Iwate Prefecture north east of Otsuchi, Japan in 2011 by a man called Sasaki Itaru. He built a telephone booth in his Bell Gardia garden to symbolically talk to his cousin who had recently passed. When the tsunami on March 11, 2011 hit this area, Sasaki invited people to come and talk to their loved ones who had passed using the wind phone to stay connected. Their voices rising and sustained by the wind; thus, bridging the gap between life and death.
The plaque also says it is dedicated to Jack Vernon Caldwell, Navy War World War II - USS Honolulu.
Her vision was to establish a place where people in the Treasure Valley community could process their grief and find healing.
"And I walked in the door and this nice gentle man said 'come on in and I love the idea,'" Marlow said.
After facing rejection from several cemeteries, Marlow finally found support from Jake Faulkner, Director of the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. Faulkner dedicated numerous hours to help bring this project to life, balancing it with his full-time job and receiving extra help from his son.
"As a veteran myself, you know, it's kind of hard to find the right time and space to, to kind of think and grieve over some… of your friends and family that you've lost," Faulkner said.
The booth's location by the Veteran Trail makes it an ideal spot for hikers and runners to take a reflective break during their workouts, providing an opportunity to release bottled-up emotions.
"You can't really vocalize what you want to get off your chest and this provides an opportunity to do that, in private," Faulkner said.
The impact of the wind telephone is evident in how the community has embraced it. People regularly tend to the flowers surrounding the booth, demonstrating its significance to visitors.
"You can see it, you know, written on the walls there. The comment cards just… all the different people it's touching and the impact it's having." Faulkner said.
Marlow hopes to expand this healing concept throughout the Treasure Valley, bringing comfort to more communities in the area.
"We're going to make people feel better, about talking, about death. Talking about the past and what happened to them and, so that that's a lot. That's enough for me," Marlow said.
To check out the booth, head up N Dry Creek Cemetery Road, cross the irrigation canal, and take a right down the gravel road before entering the cemetery. This will lead you to the parking lot where the booth sits at the beginning of the Veterans Trailhead.
