Healing Hotline gives those grieving the loss of a loved opportunity to say what went unsaid

FARGO —A new public phone in Fargo won’t be able to make a call, but it could help somebody find closure for the loss of a loved one.

The Healing Hotline is a new feature of the Garden of Healing in south Fargo.

The sound of wind is all that’s on the other end of the line, but the phone is meant to offer people a chance to say things to a lost loved one that they may not have been able to say in life.

It’s a first in North Dakota, inspired by “Phone of the Wind” and other organizations that place telephones like this around the world.

“It’s a phone that’s not connected to anything,” said Garden of Healing board member Tammy Lopez. “If they just want to talk about some healing aspect of their life. It’s a place for anyone and everyone to come and just make that connection and say words out loud that, maybe, hadn’t gotten said or things that they want to say.”

The original wind phone was built in Japan as a man named Itaru Sasaki who used the phone as a way to deal with the loss of his cousin.