1. A Visit from Singapore
On October 11, at closing time, I went to feed the goldfish in the pond behind the phone booth. A man was on the phone, and six people were waiting a short distance away.
As I usually do, I asked one of them where they had come from. I had assumed they were Japanese, but they turned out to be visiting from Singapore. I was using my smartphone to explain to one of the women that I looked after the place when the man came out of the booth. She went over and said something to him. When he came toward me, I asked, “Have you lost someone?” The moment I said it, he burst into tears.
I was taken by surprise. The woman put an arm around his shoulders and stood there with him. I rubbed his back and said, “It’s all right. It’s all right now.”
He must have cried for nearly two minutes before he finally looked up. He told me that his wife had died of a lung condition that April and that he had just spoken to her. He had talked to her about the trip to Japan they had promised each other they would take, and about how he had come to Japan this time with her brothers and sisters.
“Please leave at least half of your sorrow here at the Wind Phone,” I told him. He asked if he could give me a hug, and I said, “Of course.” He thanked me again and again before leaving.
2. Three Teachers and a School Play
On October 12, three visitors arrived for a visit they had arranged in advance. I was putting protective bags over the figs. I stopped to say hello, and the man who appeared to be the oldest of the three came over and asked, “Do you look after this place?” When I said yes, he told me why they had come.
“The three of us teach sixth grade at an elementary school. A student in one of our classes died suddenly, and we don’t know what caused the death. It happened so suddenly that the children are still in shock and struggling to take it in. To help them through this, we asked the child’s parents for permission to put on an original play about the Wind Phone at our school’s cultural festival. We’ve read and watched a range of media coverage about the Wind Phone, and we wanted to come and see it with our own eyes and experience it for ourselves.”
For most children, death is something they have had little direct experience with. Then suddenly a classmate, someone they had talked and played with, was gone. How were they to face the death of a classmate? How could they begin to accept what had happened? I could only imagine how much that shock was affecting their everyday lives at school. It would be hard enough for adults to face such a loss, and here were sixth graders having to grapple with it. I could understand how shaken the teachers must have been, too. I felt that they were facing what had happened, mourning the child, and seeing in the experience an opportunity to help their students understand what matters.
I spoke to them about the picture book Kaze no Denwa (The Wind Phone). As the book shows, the children could use the Wind Phone to speak to their classmate in heaven and say what they had never had the chance to say. I asked the teachers to help the children understand that, although they could no longer see their classmate, the child still had a place in their lives as their classmate. They could speak to their classmate and share what was in their hearts whenever they wished. I hoped the play would go well.
3. A Pin for Two
Soon after I sent lapel pins to supporters of the Friends of the Wind Phone, I received an email from one of them, a man in his sixties.
“My wife says she’d like to wear a pin, too. Would it be possible to get one for her? I’d be happy to cover the cost.”
I thought about how to respond, then wrote back.
“When you were considering making a donation, I imagine you talked it over with your wife. My understanding is that you sent the donation with her support. That means she has every right to wear a Friends of the Wind Phone pin, too. I’ll send her one as a gift.
“A well-known brand or an expensive watch, handbag, or piece of jewelry can signal social standing. The Friends of the Wind Phone pin stands for a value we hold dear. Through the Wind Phone, we can do something for someone else. I hope you’ll both wear your pins with pride as part of this worldwide community and help its circle grow.”
It makes me smile to imagine the two of them strolling through town together by now, both wearing their Friends of the Wind Phone pins with pride.