Lynda Bluestein’s Wind Phones: Comfort, Solace At The Library

Lynda Shannon Bluestein’s fight against fallopian tube cancer — and her battle to end her life on her own terms — has inspired many people.

Earlier this year, the longtime member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport reached a settlement with the state of Vermont. She will be the first non-resident to take advantage of a law that allows people with terminal illnesses to end their own lives.

At 76, she is now in hospice care. Time is short. But Lynda continues to inspire friends and strangers, in many ways.

And — as she has done for decades — she continues to give back to Westport.

In a brief ceremony this Wednesday (December 13, 10 a.m.), the Westport Library will accept Lynda’s donation of 2 wind phones.

One will be housed in the Children’s Library. The other will be available through the Library of Things.

Lynda Bluestein’s wind phone at the Library of Things …

Wind phones are physical objects, but also very spiritual. Originally from Japan, they are disconnected phones — a way to stay connected to loved ones who have died.

Garden designer Itaru Sasaki created the first wind phone in 2010, to help cope with his cousin’s death. “Because my thoughts could not be relayed over a regular phone line, I wanted them to be carried on the wind,” he explained.

It was opened to the public the following year, after an earthquake and tsunami killed over 15,000 people. It has received over 30,000 visitors.

Since then, wind phones have been created in several US states, from parks to front lawns.

Lynda donated a wind phone in Ridgefield. Its plaque says:

This phone will never ring. It is connected by love to nowhere and everywhere. It is for those who have an empty place in the heart left by a loved one. Say hello, say goodbye. Talk of the past, the present, the future. The wind phone will carry your message.

Though wind phones are often located in nature, those donated by Lynda and her family to the Library are different: Both will be available to all to use, and check out.

The first ones to be placed in a library, they will be available early next year.

… and in the Children’s Library.

Lynda chose the Westport Library because “it feels like the heart of a community my husband and I have been part of for 30 years. When we moved to Connecticut from California, we gravitated here.

“But mostly, I was interested in doing something that has never been tried before anywhere in the world: a wind phone to check out from the Library.”

The solitude and accessibility of the library setting were also draws.

“So many wind phones in the US are in parks or on hiking trails in remote and often inaccessible areas,” she says.

“When people lose someone they love and have loved for decades, it feels strange to go out alone — except to a library, where that feels completely normal.”

The Library’s wind phones will be accompanied by recommended reading for both children and adults, plus a dedicated resource guide.

“It’s important that these wind phones be available and accessible to the community,” says Agata Slattery, the Library’s development director who worked with Lynda on the donation.

“We want these to be a source of comfort and solace, and of course a lasting testament to Lynda’s generosity and bravery.”

The public is invited to Wednesday’s 10 a.m. dedication ceremony, in the Westport Library’s Sheffer Gallery.