Atlanta Wind Phone to move from Woodruff Park to Oakland Cemetery

Walking into Woodruff Park, an old rotary phone is secured to planks of wood on a tree. 

The sign for the Atlanta Wind Phone reads, “This phone is for everyone who lost a loved one. Let the wind carry your message and your goodbyes to your lost ones.” 

The phone that helps people face their grief will soon find a new home in Oakland Cemetery, according to Rough Draft Atlanta. The Grief House, a nonprofit that creates communities of support to help people deal with grief, is working with the Historic Oakland Foundation to find a home for the phone.

“It’s a way to be intentional with your grief and a way to create some sort of outlet so that it’s not internal all the time, and a way to externalize and process,” Grief House co-founder Sascha Demerjian told CBS News.

The phone is planned to be moved by the spring, and it will be maintained by the Historic Oakland Foundation. It will be available to the public between dawn and dusk, according to Rough Draft.

Pamela Elder-Mobley told CBS News that her daughter, Raven, was killed in a hit-and-run in March 2023. 

“We literally went from planning her graduation to planning her funeral in a split second,” she said. “Pick it up. Pick it up scared. Pick it up happy. I think that when you’re navigating grief, there’s no one way to navigate this process. There’s no one way to heal, and so try new things.”

Wind phones can be found all over the state, including in Macon, Athens and Savannah. Find a wind phone near you at mywindphone.com.