Phones have always been the way for grieving to connect with loved ones that they have lost.
Near the back of the demonstration garden at the Escambia County Extension Office on Stefani Road now sits an old rotary phone in a wooden box. It's in a quiet space, with a bench under the trees. Just the sounds of nature and a few nearby wind chimes.
It's known as a wind phone. It will never ring. No wires, no service, no cell signal, no Wi-Fi. It's a rotary phone, that's connected to nothing, except the wind.
"It is connected by love to everywhere and nowhere," the sign inside the wooden box with an old rotary phone says. "Let the wind carry your words to them."
Jennifer Bartok carefully dialed a number Tuesday morning, as a light misty rain fell, and occasional big drops fell from the surrounding trees. When she finishes dialing, she steps back and pauses, holding the phone cord.
"Hello Alana," she said. She sits down on a nearby bench, next to an azalea, with a variety name that's perhaps appropriate -- Autumn Angel. There's also an angel statue nearby.
"I miss you, and please watch over everybody that comes and uses this wind phone to connect with their loved ones," Jennifer says to Alana, "that didn't have a chance to say goodbye like me."
Jennifer never had that chance to say goodbye to her 17-year-old daughter Alana. On April 10, 2022, Alana passed away in a car crash that was no fault of her own when another driver ran a redlight. Jennifer never had that chance to tell Alana goodbye.
Wind phones came to be in Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that suddenly claimed nearly 20,000 people...people that loved ones were not able to tell goodbye. With a wind phone, which lost loved one is somehow there, on the other end of the line. It's the only wind phone within hours of Pensacola. That prompted Jennifer to find a location for Cantonment's very own wind phone.
"I could not find one within a five-hour drive," she said. "You get to say goodbye, and the wind will carry your message to the people you never got to say goodbye to. That's why this is being donated in my daughter's Alana Grace's Galloping Foundation in her honor, and hopefully it helps some people say goodbye."
"I miss you," Jennifer said before ending her wind phone conversation with Alana, taking a deep breath as her voice started to quiver. "Keep looking over your grandpa Ron and give him a kiss for me. darling."
Somehow the longest of long-distance calls provides a bit of inexplicable solace. There's no sense to call from a phone connected to nothing. But as people speak grief to the wind offers a connection that heals.
I'll be honest; it was a little awkward for this first time using it this morning with people around, " she said. "But I do think if I came here by myself and sat down, I'd probably be emotional, and I would feel a sense of peace and connection."
That's the point of whispers in the wind. If you listen, you'll hear more than just the rustling of the trees."