Woman creates 'phone to the dead' to help mourners

When you have lost a loved one, the idea of speaking to them again can be a real comfort.

Now a bereaved mother, from Worthing in West Sussex, is giving people the opportunity to have a one-sided phone conversation with loved ones who have died.

Nicci Parish, whose 24-year-old son Billy died after taking illegal drugs, told the BBC she is installing what is believed to be the first wind phone in Sussex.

Coming from Japan, the idea involves a disconnected telephone so people can dial up a lost loved one and talk to them in a quiet, private place.

Nicci said here was "something deeply powerful about picking up a telephone, dialling the number of someone you miss, and talking to them as if they were still there listening".

She has secured funding to put a wind phone in Durrington Cemetery where Billy is buried.

Billy died after suffering a seizure, organ failure and a heart attack when he took MDMA, also known as ecstasy, on his 24th birthday in November 2020.

"It's been such a difficult journey," Nicci told the BBC. "But you keep going."

She said she got inspiration for the wind phone after her "lovely neighbour" Mery lent her a Japanese book about the concept called the Phone Box at the Edge of the World.

"When I read it, I thought... about my youngest son, Henry. He was just 16 when Billy died," said Nicci.

"There were probably things he wanted to say to his brother."

Nicci said it had taken three years to get the wind phone installed, but added the "absolutely fantastic" bereavement manager for the council, James Thomas, was "making it happen".

"It's going to be a really nice thing for everybody, for our whole community," she said.

She added that the phone would be a "little legacy to Billy".

"Lots of people remember him... which is really lovely," she added.

In 2024, 78 deaths were recorded in England and Wales with MDMA or ecstasy on the death certificate, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

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