MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Every week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Jonathan Goldstein is host and creator of the "Heavyweight" podcast. On the show, he helps people try to move on from unfinished business in their lives. Goldstein talked to Wild Card host Rachel Martin.
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RACHEL MARTIN: Do you think people can really change?
JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN: Oh, yes. I mean, I have to believe that. I mean, even if I don't believe it, I have to believe that. And I think, like, that's the struggle, is to really try to believe that. And I do think people are capable of change within limits. You know, it's like the paradox. I mean, like, we are who we are. But I think as long as we're alive, we're able to change, you know? I'm working on a story that's - that should come out this season. It's about a woman who is 102 years old, who, one day her kids, who are, you know, in their 70s, said, you know, you're getting on in age. We should probably clean up the storage room. And while they were doing that, they found this box containing 256 letters that had been sent to her by her fiancé at the time, when she was, like, 20, who was in the war - this was World War II - who died in the war. And she had not opened up this box in - and looked at these letters in over 80 years.
MARTIN: Wow.
GOLDSTEIN: And had never really mourned the loss of this man and this relationship. She put it aside, and she married a man named Irving (ph), stayed married with him for 60-odd years, had three kids, and then finds his box and then finds herself at the age of 102 falling in love with this long-dead young man from her past. And in that process, like, she - you know, a person who was very used to - and maybe that's a little generational, too, is, like, you just pack it up and put it in a box...
MARTIN: Yeah.
GOLDSTEIN: ...And move on. But it sticks with you. You know what I mean? And, like, you know, she went through a lot of changes, even at that age, which is kind of, like, a beautiful thing to see. You know what I mean? As long as, like, we're alive and as - you know, as long as we keep going, there's always going to be change. You know, maybe not the change that other people want to see, but we're - there's going to be changes.
KELLY: Jonathan Goldstein is the host of the "Heavyweight" podcast, and you can find that entire conversation on the NPR podcast Wild Card. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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