‘A really special idea:’ B.C. man’s discovery of unconnected rotary phones proves meaningful

Adam finds out why a B.C. man is finding the unexpected appearance of a disconnected rotary phone so meaningful

David is walking his dog Frankie along the water, not far from where he and his siblings once rented a boat to say goodbye to their parents at sea.

“We poured out the ashes and a family orcas started jumping,” David recalls. “And the captain said, ‘Wow! You couldn’t have scripted that any better.’”

And ever since, David’s been hoping to see some other serendipitous sign.

“Everybody says, ‘Oh! I saw Mom here and here,’” David says. “But it’s been dead silent for me.”

But then David happened upon an unusual set-up along his dog-walk route. Along the public path, someone had placed a chair, area rug, and table with a rotary phone on it. There was also a page of information on the table, with an invitation to use the phone to communicate with a loved one you’ve lost.

“What if I could pick up the phone and just talk? What would I say?” David recalls thinking to himself. “I’m not ready.”

So, David left the phone. But the phone didn’t leave him.

“I walked down the path in tears,” David says. “I was moved. I was touched.”

So, the next day, he returned.

“I think it’s a really special idea,” David smiles.

The sign says it’s a Wind Phone, inspired by an unconnected phone booth in Japan offering to connect the living with the dead following a devastating earthquake.

“I’ll call my old number,” David says as he begins rotating the dial with his finger.

It’s the phone number he started dialling as a kid, on a red plastic home phone, that’s now displayed in his place after having to sell his parent’s house.

A phone number he never stopped calling as a grown-up.

“I called Mom every Sunday,” David says. “And whenever there was a hockey game, I’d call my Dad.”

But today, on the Wind Phone, he can’t complete the call.

“Am I ready?” David asks himself. “No.”

Because although the notebook beside the phone is filled with messages from other folks feeling grateful for the opportunity say what they wish they had, David is wanting to hear what he no longer can.

“Reassuring that it’s all ok,” David says.

But how can we hear a meaningful message, the Wind Phone seems to say, unless we listen. How can we see a sign, if we don’t look?

“All these years I’ve been waiting for a sign,” David says. “Maybe I gotta pick up the phone and call.”

And when he’s ready for that, David now knows he doesn’t have to happen upon a Wind Phone to do it. At any time, he can pick up that old red-plastic home phone and hear that everything will be OK.