Never in my wildest thought would I have believed I would spend Christmas in a movie theater.

But that’s exactly what happened.

Along with my two daughters, son-in-law Greg and my three grandchildren we were excited to be at the movie.

It wasn’t just any old movie that brought us there on Christmas Day.

It was the much-anticipated premier of the movie “Song Sung Blue.”

It’s an interesting story. I wasn’t allowed to tell the story about how the Universal movie came about until the official Christmas Day debut. That’s when the movie opened in theaters across the country.

But it all started decades ago when my son-in-law Greg decided to do a documentary on a Neil Diamond tribute band know as Lightning & Thunder.

I have always been a fan of Greg’s. As a successful filmmaker he brings a special warmth to every story he tells.

But to tell the truth I had my doubts when he said he was going to do a documentary on entertainers Mike and Claire Sardina, known as Lightning & Thunder.

I couldn’t understand why Greg wanted to focus on them, especially when they were far away and not that well know. But it turned out that his instincts were spot-on.

He had a vision and he pursued that vision for 10 years, traveling back and forth from his home in New Jersey to Milwaukee.

That wasn’t easy when Greg and Andrea had three little kids and Greg worked for the NFL every weekend.

What’s incredible about Greg’s perseverance is that he had to pay for everything himself because the documentary was self-financed. Sometimes when he flew to Milwaukee to film he had to buy food for the Sardina family because they were financially hurting.

Their hard life got much harder after a tragic accident when Claire was gardening in front of her house. After a car swerved out of control and ran her over, Claire’s leg had to be amputated.

Some gritty scenes in his documentary told that story in a way it was sometimes hard to watch without flinching.

But Greg saw that at the heart of “Song Sung Blue” was a true love story, a couple determined to make it together, no matter what.

When Claire struggled after she lost her leg, Mike kept telling his wife that he would be her arms, legs, ears, nose and mouth. He vowed he would do everything for her.

He kept saying they had to “keep their eyes on the prize.” The prize, of course, was again entertaining together.

The documentary is both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

The unexpected blow during Greg’s decade of filming was getting a call saying Lightning had a heart attack and it didn’t look good. When Mike passed away, Greg flew out to be with the family.

While the direction of the documentary kept changing, it was a gritty story of surviving through hardships.

It was somewhat of a miracle when the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, picked “Song Sung Blue” to debut in a prime spot.

Spirits were high until word came that Neil Diamond didn’t approve the use of his music in the documentary.

The second miracle was when Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame called Neil Diamond to ask him to view the documentary.

During dinner, just hours before its scheduled debut, Neil Diamond himself called Greg to say that after watching the documentary he would be proud to have his songs in the documentary. He said he “loved, loved, love it!

We all cried tears of joy. We had more tears of joy when it was announced “Song Sung Blue” won the two top festival awards, the Jury award and People’s Choice. It went on to win 10 top awards at other film festivals.

For details, go to Greg’s website, ReelasDirt.com. There’s always something interesting to read there, especially now because of what I choose to call more miracles.

Many years after “Song Sung Blue” ended its festival success the movie version is here.

When director Craig Brewer called to say he wanted to make a movie version of Greg’s “Song Sung Blue” documentary Greg said that he had mixed emotions.

While he always longed to see the story on the big screen, he thought giving away all his rights was like giving up the child you raised.

After repeated conversations with Brewer, Greg believed Brewer would remain true to the story. Most of all, he signed away his rights because he realized it would give Thunder some badly needed financial relief.

Again, Greg was amazed when another phone call from Brewer said Universal Studio had agree to produce the movie version of “Song Sung Blue.”

Things looked even sunnier when megastars Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson signed on.

It was rewarding to see how well the director treated Claire and her family.

Since the movie version’s Christmas release the accolades and good news keeps coming.

For an insider’s view of the latest good news, follow Greg’s home page at reelasdirt.com.

Nobody can tell it better than the guy that started it all 25 years ago.

If you want a worthwhile movie, “Song Song Blue” is it.

Email Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net