MUSKEGON, Mich. — As November descends upon Michigan, some trees stubbornly hold onto their leaves. On a path in Muskegon, Stacey and Alan McCabe find themselves clinging to memories.

“He was always joyful and had such a free spirit,” Stacey recalled, as her husband discreetly wiped away tears.

Michael, their son, would have walked alongside them on this trail, if not for a tragic night the previous October.

“Alan noticed a bullet casing on our bedroom floor. As he picked it up, he saw Michael lying there,” Stacey recounted, her voice choked with emotion. “That was the moment we realized he was gone. He was just 18.”

Michael was beginning his first year on scholarship at Muskegon Community College, just at the start of adulthood.

“People complain about being empty nesters. We never got to have to go through that,” Stacey explained. “And it happened like a light switch for us, like there was no transition.”

Now, Stacey and Alan are regularly found along the trail, and especially at a time when they’ve never been so lost.

“He loved riding his bike on the bike path,” Stacey said. 

“When he rode down, he used to stop out here every time,” smiled Alan.

The trail is by the lakeshore, where the wind carries the leaves, carries the waves and carries what words alone cannot.

Standing near the water is a phone booth — the first wind phone in Muskegon County.

“We had put this wind phone in for Michael and had the bench put in for Michael,” Alan said. “He loved being down here.”

“It is a phone that is a real phone, but is disconnected,” Stacey explained. “And it is a spiritual call that you would make to your loved one, that the wind carries your voice away to them.”

The McCabes couldn’t reach their son anymore. But they found a way with no service, all connection.

Alan entered the booth, took a deep breath and picked up the receiver.

“Hey buddy,” he said. “Getting ready to go a year and a half without you. I miss you. I miss you a lot, kid.”

He told Michael he’d give anything to hear his voice again as he wiped away tears. 

“I love you,” Alan said. “Alright buddy, dad will talk to you later.”

Stacey stepped inside next. 

“Hi Michael Anthony, it’s Mom. I miss you so much,” she said, her voice breaking. “Tomorrow, I think dad and I are gonna go to an indoor soccer game… I really wish we could be watching you.”

She says she only has reruns of his old games to watch now.

“I love you forever. I’ll talk to you again soon, okay? Bye sweetheart,” she said, putting down the receiver. 

“When someone’s gone that you really don’t expect to be gone and you need them, you’ll do anything to probably feel that connection,” Stacey explained.

The wind phone isn’t just for the McCabes.

“We didn’t put it in just for us,” Stacey said. “We put it in for everybody. I just hope that it gives people a little better sleep at night, knowing that they could have that last moment to be able to say something, or even just to tell somebody about their day.”

On the trail in Muskegon, Stacey and Alan McCabe built a place where he will be remembered.

The wind phone is located at 1700 Lakeshore Drive in Muskegon. Walk along the path to the right and you’ll spot it. The McCabes just hope you think of Michael when you place your call.