#56 44 Photos

Hello, Hello, Oh Hello, Do you know who this is? Yes, Stevie, Yeah, 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:11.960 you got me. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.000 You have a pretty recognizable voice. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:15.760 I have to say. 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.759 It has sort of like a pleasantly deep registered wow 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.240 in a nice way, but it makes your voice very distinct. 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.080 It's funny you should say this because, Yeah, one time, 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.680 when I was like in middle school, my friend called 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.080 my house and I picked up the phone and I 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.280 was like, hello, and she thought it was my dad. 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.839 She was like, hi, Rob, is Stevie home? And I 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:41.320 just pretended that, in fact, I was my father, and 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.440 I was just like, uh yeah, let me get her. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:46.320 You didn't want to contradict your friend. 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.000 I think I was just so embarrassed that I could 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.240 possibly be mistaken for an old man. 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.480 Well maybe with respect to your dad, he maybe he 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:56.800 kind of sounds like little girl. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.160 Hello, Stevie Lane, stads speaking. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:15.840 I'm Stevie Lane, and this is Heavyweight Today's episode forty 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:24.959 four photos. 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:24.080 Right after the break. 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.880 There are places, according to Celtic folklore, where the boundary 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:39.440 between our physical world and the spiritual world is porous, 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.320 where Earth and the otherworldly are separated. 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:44.480 By no more than a few inches. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:51.280 At these places, strange unexplainable things can happen. These places 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.600 are called thin places, and this is a story about 0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:03.400 one of them. A few years ago, Jordan Kissner wrote 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.600 a book about thin places. She wanted to send it 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:07.680 to her friend Amy. 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.760 So it was April seventh, twenty twenty one, and I 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:17.919 went to the USPS that was a few blocks away 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:20.360 from my apartment at the time. 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.480 Jordan bought a brown padded envelope, put her book inside, 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.359 and handed it to the postal worker and that was that. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.920 It was a really uneventful post office visit on a 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:37.400 pretty normal spring day in Vegas. 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.240 It was a sunny day in April, and I walked 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.480 to the mailbox. This is Jordan's friend Amy, which is 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.239 a really exciting part of my day. I really like mail. 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:54.080 And I opened the mailbox with the little key and 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.120 there's something like stuffed into my box. 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.440 Something Amy had been expecting the package Jordan sent her. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.160 It says, you know, to Amy from Jordan and the 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:06.440 addresses Las Vegas. 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.040 Amy brought the package back to her house and eagerly 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.560 tore it open. But inside Amy did not find Jordan's book. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.920 She didn't find a book at all. Instead, she found 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:19.840 a stack of. 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:28.280 Photographs, and that's where the mystery begins. 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:33.040 Amy didn't recognize anyone in the photos. There was one 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.320 of a girl wearing a blue T shirt with clouds 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.280 printed on it, another of three teenagers in caps and gowns. 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.480 The people were of all different ages and races. Some 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.000 of the photos were in black and white, some in color. 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.880 One was a polaroid. Amy counted forty four photos in all, 0:03:51.680 --> 0:04:02.120 forty four photos of complete and total strangers, And yet 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:06.000 the package was labeled to Amy, her name written in 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.840 ballpoint pen Jordan's return address was scrawled in the upper 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.840 left hand corner. Struggling to come up with an explanation, 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:15.520 Amy wondered. 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.120 Maybe Jordan sent these by accident. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.880 So Amy texted Jordan, telling her she received her package, 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.280 but rather than a book, found forty four photographs inside. 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.880 And I was completely confused. 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:32.720 I just couldn't. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.760 I actually felt like I couldn't totally comprehend the message 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:36.600 she was sending me. 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.280 So Jordan texted Amy back. 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.280 Wait, Comma, what with two question marks? 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:44.360 Two? 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:44.880 Yeah? Two? 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.120 And then photos question mark. 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.760 Amy sent Jordan a picture of the package and all 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.040 forty four photographs spread out on her kitchen counter. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.479 And she said, what in all caps? I have no 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.200 idea what those photos are. I don't even I know 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.960 those people, but that's my handwriting on the package. 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:10.520 It was hard to know what to make of the 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.920 whole thing. It's like Amy expected a book about thin 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:19.960 places but got an actual thin place experience instead. Amy 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.960 can't bring herself to just throw the photos away, so 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.960 for an entire year now she's kept them by her desk, 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.039 and for an entire year she's been studying them. There's 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.839 the one of a new baby sucking on someone's finger. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.440 There's a little girl in glasses and a cheerleader's outfit, 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.840 holding her leg up and smiling confidently into the camera. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.520 The more Amy looks at the photos, the more she 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.039 thinks about the family that's missing them. These people in 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.000 the photos are nobody's to Amy, but they are somebody's 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:51.760 to somebody. 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:54.640 Is there a way to find any of these people? 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:56.000 Like? 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.880 Who are they? Do they want their photographs back? Because 0:05:59.920 --> 0:06:03.200 I would like the photographs to be returned to the family. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.480 I feel like people should have their things. 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:11.200 A year ago, when Amy first received the package, she 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.160 and Jordan tried opening a case file on the mysterious 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.480 photos hoping the USPS could shed light on where they 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:19.599 came from, but nothing ever came of it. 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.200 The mail system, we feel like we understand it, but 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.960 then when you really think about it, it is this 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.159 complete mystery. It's like a void into which we send 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.440 stuff and from which that stuff emerges again. But then 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.359 when it doesn't emerge, you're like, wait a second, but 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.080 what is where is it going? 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.720 What is this system? What don't we know about it? 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.080 There's a lot that I don't know about it, but 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.320 Amy and Jordan want my help figuring out how Amy 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.640 ended up with the photographs and how to return to sender. 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.200 To get to the bottom of it, I'll have to 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:59.360 navigate a mysterious, little understood world that exists alongside our own, 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.960 a world separated only by an inches wide slot in 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:09.320 a metal box. And so I step over the boundary 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.400 into the world of the United States Postal Service. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:21.160 I start with a. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.840 Theory that Jordan, Amy and I discussed on the phone. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.560 Jordan had sent Amy the book via media mail, a 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.720 discounted rate for sending things like books and CDs. From 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.320 what I read online, it sounds like the Post Office 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.120 searches media mail packages to prevent people from sending anything 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.680 they want on the cheap and in fact, Amy noticed 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:43.880 that the package had been taped up as though it 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:48.200 had been resealed en route. Maybe Jordan's package and the 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.440 package with the photos were both searched and then accidentally swapped. 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.840 To test this theory, I call the Postal Inspection Service. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.680 It turns out out the post Office as a whole 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.040 department of inspectors. 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.520 Are you sort of like the James Bond of the 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:06.360 mail service? 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.720 Actually, it's funny you mentioned that my badge number was 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:10.600 double O seven. 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:22.240 No really, really, his name is me Halco, Dan Mihalko. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.680 He's a US Postal inspector. And what does he inspect? 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:31.320 Postal crimes? Theft of mail, mail fraud, prohibited items in 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:38.480 the mail such as bombs, narcotics, anthrax, attacks, pornography. 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:41.480 I put my theory to Dan. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.320 Might the Postal Inspection Service have opened and examined Jordan's package? 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.840 No, No, we don't do anything like that. The only 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.080 time would ever inspect mail is if we had a 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.400 search warrant so that we can't just open up mail. Huh, 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:58.719 nobody in a postal service has that. 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:05.480 Authority, Dan says, USPS investigators don't inspect packages without probable cause. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.960 Here's what it sounds like may have happened. 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:14.040 So Dan guesses that somewhere along the way, Jordan's package 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:15.120 got damaged and the. 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:15.880 Book fell out. 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:20.200 Another package carrying the bundle of photos could have also 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.840 broken open. A postal worker might have seen the loose 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.480 bundle of photos, thought they belonged to Jordan's envelope, and 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.920 accidentally switched the packaging. And here's where that switch might 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:32.480 have occurred. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.760 It used to be commonly referred to as a dead 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.720 letter office, but now it's I think it's Mail Recovery Center. 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:45.360 The Mail Recovery Center, or MRC, is located in Atlanta, Georgia. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.520 It's where all undeliverable mail winds up. Some of the 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.720 stuff they receive is truly strange. An alligator skull still 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:58.680 covered in flesh cremation boxes Tom Nissalke's nineteen seventy one 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.800 NBA championship, which had been stolen from him twelve years before, 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.720 showing up at the MRC. I don't know who Tom 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:10.559 Desalk is, but listeners might. The MRC is also one 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.720 of the few places where postal workers are actually allowed 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.360 to open mail to help them look for clues as 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.800 to where the items or letters belong. Dan says that 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.080 it's the job in part of the MRC employees to 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.840 make their best guess about what belongs with what and 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:26.920 send it on its way. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.240 They have to try to put pieces together. You know, 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.400 they're kind of sluice in their own way. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:40.160 In their own way, don't condescend to the MRC agent Mihalko. 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:42.559 If Dan is right, the. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.120 Original package, the photos came in with the original address 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.600 might still be sitting somewhere at the MRC. So I 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:51.720 phone up the person in charge. 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:56.120 To ask, this is a manager. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.760 Lionel snow, Oh high, Lionel, my name is Stevie Lane 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.040 and I'm a radio journalist. Do you have a moment 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.000 so I can tell you why I'm calling? 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:06.760 Uh? 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.600 Not really, I mean I don't have a lot of 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.920 conversation time to falup with customers. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.640 Nevertheless, I tell him about the mix up. 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:21.960 Anything could have happened, Anything could have happened. 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:23.000 I mean, I can tell you. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.920 Lionel tells me that, contrary to Dan Mihalko's theory, Jordan's 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.600 package likely never made it to the MRC. If it had, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.560 it would probably have a special stamp on it, which 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.360 Jordan's package doesn't. I ask if he has any other guesses, 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.680 but he just keeps sweeping out his favorite phrase. 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.040 Anything could have happened, Anything could have happened. I can 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:45.440 make an educated guess or or not. 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.360 When I press, the answer is or not. 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:51.000 Anything could have happened. 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:59.000 Jordan had likened the mail system to avoid into which 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.640 we send stuff and from which that stuff emerges. But 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.440 it appears it's also a void into which I send 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.920 my questions and from which nothing emerges. Over a number 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.000 of weeks, I reach out to more people at the USPS, 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:17.800 in the Communications Department, the Historian's office, even the Postal Museum. 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:19.240 It is a mystery. 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:20.439 I can't really guess. 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.760 You have one hundred and sixty million addresses in the US. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.160 It could have come from any one of them. 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:27.839 Nobody is able to help. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.600 I've hit a dead end with the post Office, so 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.160 I turn to the only other information that I have, 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.480 the photos themselves. Is there a way to identify the 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.800 people in these photographs? There's a photo of someone's pet cat, 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:48.280 but it doesn't have a collar. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:48.720 With a tag. 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.880 There's a graduation, but it doesn't show the name of 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.120 the school. There's one photo of a man sitting in 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.080 a restaurant pulling up a signed headshot of what looks 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.800 like a younger version of himself. The headshot is signed 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:07.439 doctor Pedro something MD, but after hours of photoshop sharpening, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.680 I still can't read what that something is. For every photo, 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.360 I'm just one small piece of information away from cracking 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:23.280 the case. Every photo except for one. The photo is 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.640 the oldest in the bunch, a creased and faded polaroid. 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.640 In it, a man crouches in the grass supporting a 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.720 baby in plaid overalls, barely old enough to walk. The 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.720 baby is looking down at a dog rolling over on 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.679 its back playfully while the man pets its stomach. No 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.560 one is aware of the camera. It seems to be 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.200 capturing a private moment. And when you flip the photo 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:53.360 over there's something written on the back Dalln Kelly and Queenye. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:59.160 It says, in all caps at grandparents Coxes Kelly nine 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:26.320 and a half months Dallen Kelly and Queenee grandparents Coxes. 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.640 After googling around, I find a number for a Dallon 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:32.120 Cox in California. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:40.400 Hello, Hi, is this Jalon I'd called a few days 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:41.760 before and left a message. 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.120 I'm just really curious what this is all about. Honestly, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.040 I have no idea how to be involved in anything 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:50.880 that you would be looking into. 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.280 So I explain about the package of photos Amy received, 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.760 about one in particular of a man with a child 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.000 and a dog with a inscription on the back, and 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:08.320 it says Dallan, Kelly and queenye At grandparents Coxes Kelly 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.840 nine and a half months. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.040 Definitely, that's crazy. 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:13.800 Yeah, that's crazy. 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:14.760 That would be my dad. 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.120 Yeah, huh, yeah, it sounds like it might be of 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:19.840 my dad and my sister Kelly. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:22.920 Dallan's dad is Dalan Senior. 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.280 Dallan suggests I give him a call to see if 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.440 the photo belongs to him. 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:31.080 Hello. 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.760 I tell Dalan Senior all about the photo of him 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.000 and his daughter Kelly. Then I texted over to him, 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.480 all right, here it comes. 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:46.360 Yeah, I'm a beet daughter. Wow. 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.280 That would have been from nineteen sixty seven, probably sixty eight. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.080 She'd have been about nine months old, I would say 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.800 at that time obviously is standing up a little bit, 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:00.960 but she walked at early age like that, So yeah, 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:01.880 that's really something. 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.200 No, I don't have that picture in my collection. In fact, 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.960 I don't recall ever having seen it before. Kelly was 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.400 born in sixty seven, in June of sixty seven, and 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.960 she actually she passed away in March of last year. 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:25.880 Kelly died on March thirtieth, twenty twenty one. The package 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.000 with Kelly's photo was postmarked April seventh, twenty twenty one, 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.880 just one week after she died, so. 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.160 That just makes it really strange. 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.400 Kelly died unexpectedly of heart failure at the age of 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:42.960 fifty three. 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:45.080 It was a shock to her family. 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:47.480 Everybody loved her laugh. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:52.840 When she laughed, it was just really unique, an enthusiastic laugh, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:17:01.120 you know. I remember taking her with me to like 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.280 one weekend and she learned the water ski and she 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:11.840 was having a ball. My dad used to take Kelly 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.800 at that age, when she was about a year old, 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.040 down to the lake and they would feed the ducks. 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:19.359 He'd take breadcrumbs and they'd throw them to the ducks, 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.919 and she got so excited to do that. 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:23.160 That was her favorite thing to do. 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.159 Dyllan Senior doesn't recognize the handwriting on the back of 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.720 the photograph, but he wonders if it belongs to Kelly's mother, 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:46.040 his ex wife, Betty. Betty had been sick and unable 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.760 to make it to Kelly's funeral. Maybe she put it 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.120 in the mail, hoping it would arrive for the service. 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.439 When I phoned Betty, she doesn't remember the photo, but 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:57.960 she tells me that she did indeed mail a package 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:03.359 of photos to her granddaughter, Devin. Devin is Kelly's daughter. 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:07.080 This is Devin. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:08.600 So I called. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.040 Devan to see if I ended up with the photos 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:12.600 that her grandma tried to send her. 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.480 No, I did get a package of photos from my grandmother. 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:19.359 Huh. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.600 Devin got the photos from Betty in a package that 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.720 was firmly sealed, and the photo of Kelly and Dallen 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.840 that one wasn't in there. Devin says she's never seen 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:34.320 it before. As for the rest of the photographs Amy received. 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:38.200 I don't recognize any of the people, none of them. 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:38.919 Huh. 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:39.640 No. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.320 Dallan Junior, Dalan Senior, and Betty all said the same 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.199 thing when I sent them the photos. Somehow, then it 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.080 seems this photograph, along its journey through the mail, wound 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.880 up with forty three other images of other random families. 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.639 Devin can't tell me anything about those other families, but 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.200 she does tell me about her own. Her mom, Kelly, 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.439 got pregnant with her when she was in college. Kelly 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.960 wasn't prepared to take care of a child, and soon 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.600 after Devan was born, Dallan Senior, Devin's grandfather, took Devon 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.439 in and raised her as his daughter. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:21.000 I know that my mom had mental health issues, and 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:27.640 it took over my mom's life in many ways. There 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.359 were many instances in my mom's life where she didn't 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.959 have the power to take care of me. And there 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:39.199 were many years that passed by and I had nothing 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.720 to do with my mom, Like I didn't know where 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:46.120 she was. I didn't hear from her. I was unsure 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.720 if she was even alive. So I've had a hard 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:57.919 time growing up believing that my mom loved me. 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.840 But Devin tells me in the last seven or eight 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:08.280 years before her mom's death, that changed. Devin was in 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:13.280 her mid twenties, and without explanation, seemingly overnight, Kelly started 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.440 reaching out more. She would come over to help Devin 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.160 with projects around the house, like painting cabinets. The two 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.520 of them spent hours sitting together on the couch, playing Zelda, and. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.080 I felt like I had my mom. I finally had 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.080 my mom. I was an adult, but at least I 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:41.920 had my mom. Two weeks before she passed, my mom 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:43.800 just out of the blue said do you want to 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.399 go out and go do something together? And I was like, 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.480 I don't know where do you want to go? And 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.359 she's like, what about that place that has mini golf 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.040 and go carts? And I was like, okay, then let's go. 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:05.760 And I hang on to that moment. Somehow, I feel 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.520 like she knew that she wasn't going to be around 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.040 for very long, and she was trying to spend more 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.280 time with me and trying to do things with me. 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.760 As for the photograph and the strange circumstances of its appearance, 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:23.040 I don't. 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:28.560 Feel like it's weird. I just think that it fits 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.480 my mom's personality to do something like that. 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.199 How do you mean it fits her personality to do 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:34.760 something like. 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:41.560 She believed that there's something beyond death. And I've never 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:47.000 believed in ghosts or anything or anything after you passed, 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:51.600 but if there is something there, my mom would definitely 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:52.480 do something like this. 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:56.800 See you think that this is almost like a missive 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:58.160 from your mom. 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.080 Yeah, I think that's possible, and I feel like this 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.040 is her trying to say I'm still here. 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.280 In Jordan's book, she writes that in thin places quote 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:21.880 invisible things like music or love or dead people might 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.879 become visible, or if they don't become visible, they become 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.720 so present and tangible that it doesn't matter. 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:31.680 Like Devon, I'm not. 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:35.600 One to believe in ghosts, Yet after talking with everyone, 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:38.639 I still don't know where the photo of Kelly came from. 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.320 No one in Kelly's family can account for it, so 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.880 after months of searching, the origins of this photo are 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.520 still a mystery. But in what I see as a 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:53.320 series of unexplainable events that began with Jordan sending a 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:58.000 book and ended up here, Devin sees her mother, and 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.600 it's precisely the unlikeliness of the that she points to 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:02.399 as proof. 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.439 I just think, if you look at all of the 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:10.520 little pieces of how this happened, not just anybody would 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:12.560 have reached out and tried to find the owner of 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:15.679 a photo, I think it would have been tossed in 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.920 the trash or pushed aside. 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:19.760 I feel like. 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:22.760 It's like a treasure. 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:23.240 From my mom. 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:28.040 That's how I feel huh, like my mom placed it 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.200 there on purpose and got it into the right hands 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:32.800 that would reach out to me. 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.680 I'd been thinking of this as a story about male 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:41.240 going to the wrong place, but listening to Devn, I 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:43.760 wonder if it's actually a story about it going to 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:48.919 the right one to Amy. And yet because the photo 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:51.879 wound up in Amy's hands, Devin didn't get it for 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:56.480 an entire year after Kelly's death. If Kelly wanted Devin 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:59.680 to have the photo, why deliver it a year late? 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:00.720 Why? 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:01.040 Now? 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.199 There have been times where I've really needed somebody to 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:09.480 be in my house with me, and out of everybody 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.399 in my family and out of all of my friends, 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:18.600 my mom would drop anything to come and support me. 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:24.960 And when she passed, I didn't have that safety net anymore. 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:29.159 I had trouble at my job and I had to 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:36.560 take extra time off. But if she's still here, that 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:37.440 makes a difference. 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:47.400 It's not easy losing a mom, so having this feeling 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:50.359 that she's still here and she's still with me is 0:24:52.840 --> 0:24:53.520 is amazing. 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:00.520 Right after a loss, there are a lot of people 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:04.359 to lean on, but as time passes and people return 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:07.199 to their lives, you begin to feel that loss in 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:11.600 a new way. Houses get cleaned out, clothes get donated, 0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:17.639 and all evidence of the person fades away with the photo. 0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:22.000 Though Kelly has come back to Devon a year late, 0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:32.800 but perhaps right on time. Devin's grandfather, Dallan Senior, is 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:36.680 turning seventy five soon. Devon told me that they're throwing 0:25:36.760 --> 0:25:39.680 him a big party. She's been working on his birthday 0:25:39.680 --> 0:25:44.119 present for months, a new family photo album, and along 0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:47.760 with all the photographs she's collected, she wants to include 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:52.080 this one safe among the other smiling faces of Kelly's 0:25:52.080 --> 0:26:40.280 family members, where surely it won't be lost again. Now 0:26:40.400 --> 0:26:40.840 that the. 0:26:41.000 --> 0:26:45.560 Fern atures rip turned into its good will. 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:53.359 Home, now that the last month's rant is skiming with 0:26:53.640 --> 0:26:58.199 the damage to post, take this moment to dessert. 0:27:00.240 --> 0:27:05.800 If we mentioned if we trash Feld for. 0:27:09.400 --> 0:27:11.200 Things as dan Lee. 0:27:13.200 --> 0:27:13.440 Zero. 0:27:16.359 --> 0:27:19.479 This episode of Heavyweight was produced by me Stevie Lane, 0:27:19.520 --> 0:27:23.520 along with Jonathan Goldstein, Phoebe Flanagan, and Mohemi mcgouger. Our 0:27:23.560 --> 0:27:27.320 Senior producer is Khaleila Holt. Special thanks to Alex Bloomberg, 0:27:27.440 --> 0:27:31.520 mime O'Donnell, Laurence Silverman, Maureene Taylor, Estelle Ivory and all 0:27:31.560 --> 0:27:35.880 The Incredibly Patient People over at the USPS editorial guidance 0:27:35.880 --> 0:27:38.959 from Emily Condon. Bobby Lord mixed the episode with original 0:27:39.040 --> 0:27:42.360 music by Christine Fellows, John K. Sampson, Blue Dot Sessions, 0:27:42.480 --> 0:27:45.879 John Jacoby, and Bobby Lord. Additional music credits can be 0:27:45.920 --> 0:27:49.840 found on our website gimlimedia dot com slash Heavyweight. Our 0:27:49.880 --> 0:27:53.000 theme song is by The Weaker Thens, courtesy of Epitaph Records. 0:27:53.440 --> 0:27:55.080 Amy has just written a new. 0:27:54.920 --> 0:27:58.560 Book, Artificial, a graphic memoir about her father's efforts to 0:27:58.600 --> 0:28:02.720 preserve her late grandfather's life identity using AI technology. You 0:28:02.760 --> 0:28:05.639 can find it at your local bookstore. Heavyweight is a 0:28:05.680 --> 0:28:09.679 Spotify original podcast. Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight, on 0:28:09.800 --> 0:28:13.520 Instagram at Heavyweight podcast, or email us at Heavyweight at 0:28:13.520 --> 0:28:16.680 gimlipmedia dot com. You can follow our show on Spotify 0:28:16.800 --> 0:28:20.480 and tap the bell to receive notifications when new episodes. 0:28:20.080 --> 0:28:23.360 Drop, and one will drop next week. 0:28:41.760 --> 0:28:43.640 Hello Stevie's dad speaking. 0:28:44.480 --> 0:28:47.600 Oh that was nice, okay, great Estelle, Thank you so much. 0:28:47.880 --> 0:28:49.400 What is your school about anyway,