April 2018 Update

We are continuing to go forward with the movie. Allen completed the rough edit of the film footage, all 2 1/2 hours of it and we were able to obtain the services of David Eichhorn a seasoned and award winning sound and film editor. Tamir, Niko, Allen, and I  met with David and his amazing wife. The meeting really felt like a gathering of old friends as we chatted about how our film came to be. David was very happy with the project and I am sure he will be doing great things to provide us the professional finished look we strived for. It is already looking amazing.


Allen completed the new cover and added photos of the filming to the original novel Resilient Hearts, that inspired our film. We are going with a self publishing option through Amazon, so now Allen gets to do all of the work. I will let you all know when it will be available.


Otherwise all is well and in Tamir and Niko's capable hands. I will provide more details as they happen.


Thanks for all of your prayers and positive thoughts, and you might want to start picking out what you are going to wear to the premiere!!!!

We Did It !!!!!

We made and actually surpassed our goal of raising $10,000 on ago-find-me site! This money will pay for an experienced editor to come in and take Allen’s (my hubby) draft of the full movie to the next level. Allen has worked tirelessly since January on putting the filmed scenes together in the correct sequence and has worked with improving the sound and color so the next editor will have a workable draft to essentially clean up, shorten to 90 minutes, adjust the coloring throughout the film to make it uniform, sinc up the sound and music, and just in general, provide us with a polished professional looking finished product. Any remaining funds will go to improving or adding to the sound, filming and inserting additional scene connections to better transition one scene to the next. I am not sure why it finally feels like this movie will happen, but it does. There are so many wonderful people to thank for helping us get so far. I am so grateful that they believed in the story I needed to tell. Most of all I am grateful for the opportunity I was given to work with my amazing patients and their families. They are the true stars, actually angels that have helped guide us through this project. I want to thank everyone for helping me give them a voice. Hey, I may have just written my Oscar acceptance speech!! HaHa!!!!

March Update

I realized since I am only doing monthly blogs I no longer need a fancy title. So here we go for March.
I am sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Fort Worth Texas at 5am (3am PST) . Gee I wish I hadn’t figured that out, now I’m really tired!! Anyway, I am here to speak at the Cow Town oncology conference . They have an on-going cowboy theme for the conference so, I get to lecture in jeans, my version of cowboy boots (ankle highs) and wear a cowboy hat 🤠. By the way, I hate hats !!! So while I wait for my ride to the conference, I thought I would blog.
A few cool things are happening, first, we got the rights to the song by Norman Greenbaum Spirit in the Sky. So that was pretty exciting. Guess they liked what we are doing and really came through for us. A big happening is that our very own Niko has agreed to take on a producer role for the film! His involvement has really helped and he is working closely with Tamir to get funding and talk to potential investors. We are in the last few days of our Go Fund Me project and on Monday we are planning to do a live Pod Cast to help promote the film. So, get your friends and family together to listen and donate! We are looking at numerous possibilities for additional funding. We will keep you up to date on our progress. Allen is working diligently on putting together a rough edit of our film so the final editing will go more quickly when we hire an experienced editor to work on coloring and timing. The edits I wanted for my book are done and Allen is working on the cover and picking the photos for the insert pages. I will let all of you know when it will be available. I am also working on a teaching version of my book so students can get the most learning from the film and original novel. Whew, I am really getting tired now just thinking about it and it doesn’t help that it is only 3:30!!

Well that’s about it. Thank you all for your interest and support of this project. It is proving to be an amazing ride! Keep those prayers and positive thoughts coming. More to come!!

February Update

Guess a monthly entry is the way I will be doing things. Tamir is busy interviewing editors to work with Allen’s rough edit of the film. Allen is shooting for a finish date of March 1st, then final editing will start to improve the general flow of the movie, the color and sound will also be addressed. It’s been a lot of work for Allen and everyone involved.

Niko and Rupinder have kindly agreed to help with marketing and the needed interviews and promotions that Tamir is organizing. I think it speaks volumes when key actors believe in a film project so strongly that they agree to help with post production! Thanks you two!!!

Tamir got some positive feedback at Sundance about our project. Everyone felt it would make a great TV series! So, We are definitely committed to staying active with talking to people and asking for financial help to complete the technical needs of the film and to look at marketing options. Multiple “go fund me” type sites have been established and we are continuing to work closely with my Supportive Care Depsrtment to explore educational opportunities. So everyone keep your fingers crossed!!

One final shout out to Monique and Jacob. Seems Resilient Hearts May have caused a love connection! Best of luck to two awesome people!!

Well more later, stay tuned!!

Going Forward

Thought I should check in at least monthly. I will admit to some serious distractions from the holidays and a great case of the flu. Allen and I enjoyed our time in Kentucky visiting the grand children. McKenna was exceptionally cuddly when she wasn’t running around like a crazy child, and Kailei is staying true to her inner hippie and picked out her first guitar, pink of course. Allen gave her a few lessons while we were there and she seems to like it. The freezing temperatures were a challenge and I can appreciate the heated seats and steering wheels in their cars. Of course, no holiday visit would be complete without catching the flu. It hit me on the plane ride home!! What an aweful experience. I continued to battle the flu and made it into work for two days only to relapse and  add another version to the mix. I am not a good patient! I hated staying home, but I was of no use at work. Anyway, so far Allen has been fine. He and Tamir worked on trailers for the movie. The latest version was just posted on our website, so be sure to check them out. The newest version gives the names of the actors just like in s real movie (haha). I am so proud of all the hard work that has gone into this. I just know something great will come from all of this.

I am in the process of editing the original novel used for the film. There is so much more information and detail that I wish I could have put in the movie. Oh well, maybe another chance will allow us to share those details.

Tamir is working with a possible editor to help Allen. Allen is still working on the rough draft of the film. I cannot wait to see it. There will be one last trailer by this editor so we can see how he works. So we will have lots of material to promote the movie.

Finally, Tamir is planning to attend the Sundance Film Festival in Utah . It starts January 20th. So fingers crossed that he makes some connections. In the meantime, since work places are turning back to normal, we hope to continue discussions with City of Hope for their formal involvement. I am shooting for a May premiere. So, keep the prayers and good thoughts coming.

Happy Holidays

Just a few things going on, but with the holidays almost upon us that is to be expected. My husband Allen, is hard at work sinking the film's scenes with their sound tracts, deleting duplicate and unusable footage, and working with Tamir (one of our executive producers) to put together a trailer that reflects the very best of our film. Allen also completed a trailer for our potential health care providers to review. They wanted to see the core teaching opportunities the film provides to help them decide if they want to invest in our final development needs.

Our next step is for Allen to edit the entire film into a rough draft. This will be easier given all of the organizing he has done. Allen does not need to spend time on correcting color or having the sound match up perfectly in a rough cut. Tamir and Jenia have found experienced movie editors that are willing to take what Allen has organized and develop a finished end product. We will all be in a position to add our opinions and agree on the final product. Allen will continue to work with the editor and gain even more expertise in the process. Tamir and Jenna are talking up the film and through them and Raj there may even be some international interest!

Allen submitted photos he took during the filming and an explanation about the film's subject to an on-line photography magazine called JPG (jpgmag.com) and it was selected as the article of the week! So see, we are slowly becoming famous!

Well I just wanted to share the updates and wish everyone a happy holiday season. I am going to make Allen take a break and fly with me to see the grand babies. Kailei and McKenna enjoyed their acting debut and continue to sing the Niko song every chance they get. Keep our project in your prayers and good thoughts. I will check in again next year.

Keeping the Dream alive

I want to continue my blog through the post production process. I just don't want anyone to think this project stops with the end of filming. Allen and Tamir are collaborating on new film trailers for the general public and for health care providers now that we have footage from the whole film to work with. Then the marketing begins as we try to get investors to help with production expenses such as editing and obtaining music rights. We hope to have a finished product by March or April. I would like to plan a permit for nurses week the beginning of May. So fingers crossed!!

We will be checking into film festivals and will keep everyone notified of the details. In the meantime we are establishing a corporation  to meet CA business requirements. We took the name "Resilient Hearts Project  LLC". I know real original.

And, final news. Jillian and Niko just finished in the recording stuudio and we now have a useable version of our song "You'll Never Be Alone". Who knew Niko could sing so well? Jillian was awesome as usual. Plans for the song use in the film are being looked explored.

Well more later, just wanted everyone to know we are still around.

It's a Wrap

I needed a day to sleep and to get my head around the fact that we finished filming. We had a nice showing of extras to fill in our crowd scenes, Jillian and Niko did a great job with our song "You'll never be alone", and Jacob and Allen did a great job with posters and banners thanks to Craig and Jacob's resources. Everyone in the cast and crew came together to finish and to celebrate. Allen and I did a mock awards ceremony to thank and harass, and Allen put together some film shorts of bloopers and silliness from the cast and crew. It was an awesome night! I cannot thank my clinic friends and Crystal enough for all of their help and for my flowers. Bella brought this amazing cake and we had awesome food donated by JC from Premier and Marci from Assisted. In all it was a great night.

Now we enter the next phase, the post-production. We will be focusing on fund raising and obtaining backing for the project. Lots of legal stuff and editing. I will be keeping you informed of our progress and, I hope one day soon, a date for our Premier.

So enjoy your Turkey day and the Holidays. There is much more to come!

Cannot Believe it's Almost Over!

Final filming at City of Hope clinics ended last night. We said good-bye to many of the actors that I hope will come to the wrap party next Sunday. Lots of plans in place for a celebration. We will be in Cooper Auditorium, how appropriate! The facilities will be awesome for the final "cancer survivor celebration" scene. I need to write a final addition to the script so Niko can introduce Jillian and then they will sing a song together that the three of us will have worked on. The audience will need to brush up on the Flintstones song too.

Filming this weekend was bitter-sweet. We did the outdoor wheelchair race and it was glorious! I will always remember Craig, Megan, and T.J. Coming over the hill with flags waving. The all-terrain wheelchair was amazing and the cast had fun checking it out.  Niko gave it his all as usual, even running laps because the scene required that he be tired out. Niko's mom Marie, joined us too. She was wonderful. We put her to work with walk on rolls and playing a Nurse. She was great

The cast and crew had fun with the rest of the scenes, much of which will totally destroy the PG rating I want! The out-takes and bloopers are going to be hysterical.

I was very humbled with the elephant charm bracelet Niko gave me. It was a perfect ending to an overwhelming project! I don't even know where to start with thanking everyone!! I hope to express my thanks more fully Sunday.

One more scene to go. Come join us for this final crowd scene and celebration next Sunday! I will be posting the invitation soon.

Keep those prayers and positive thoughts coming. We are just getting started with post-production issues and raising the needed funding for music royalties, distribution costs, legal fees, and so much administrative stuffI can't even begin to understand. So stay tuned there will be much more to come on this blog!

Nearing the Finish Line

I cannot believe we are planning for our last full weekend of filming. This isn't happening without a bit of drama as our Director of Photography, Samuel, had to cancel and caused us to scramble for a replacement. Have no worries we found someone and things will keep going forward as planned. In keeping with tradition, I did one more screen re-write so we could add Clare into the wheelchair scene. I agreed that Michael needed a cheering section and was glad Clare was available. Another fun project we took on a bit late was to get Jillian and Niko together to work on a song for the finale. I wrote some lyrics that they kindly agreed to work with. The sample music is awesome, so fingers crossed it works out. And finally, the most concerning was that Tamir was in a minor car accident this week. He's fine but his nose is not so happy. I am just glad he is okay. Let's hear it for a few more grey hairs!

I want to thank the cast and crew for their continued enthusiasm, and I am starting to believe we will finally finish this project with just a few bruises, but we are going to make it! Keep the prayers and positive thoughts coming!!

Only Three More Filming Days

First, sorry,  I did a blog last week but just now realized I left it as a draft, so that is the other posting for today. I didn't want you to think I forgot about you for an entire week.

Well cast and crew wrapped after another productive weekend. I can't get use to the smaller staff and crew sessions we had and ended up with way too much food, but the floor nurses were happy about their surprise dinner.

We took delivery of the all-terrain wheelchair on Friday. A huge thanks goes out to Don Swenson the dealer from All Out Access in Ramona for lending us the chair, and to Dr. Finly Zachariah (Shane's Dasd) for taking delivery, storing, and helping us get it to City of Hope. Now we just need to get Michael set up and the race will be on for this coming Saturday. It should be fun. We have permission to film in Pioneer Park on City of Hope property and the support of their security department, who by the way have been amazing and so supportive of us over this extended filming project!

We have so many people to thank for helping us get through filming from the cast and crew to nursing and Supportive Care staff, to friends and family. A special thanks to Jeanne and David for use of the Biller Center. We could never of made this film without their help and support! Everyone has just been amazing!

This past weekend we finished the scene when Cooper has his stroke (spoiler alert). So many of the cast and crew were tearful and really saddened by the scene, so it was great to give them the kazoo playing sailor team of David and Jimmy. So, everything seemed to balance out. Now on to getting songs ready for the finale and planning the wrap party.

I decided to check in with a daily tarot reading and here is what I got:
The nine of cups offering a paradisacial (didn't know that was a word) bounty, at last all our hopes are fulfilled, our dreams realized. As well, this card offered an omen that a wish will be granted in the near future. It's as if the world is giving us a reward for sheer persistence. Expect great satisfaction and contentment. How great is this!!!

I can see the finish line! Keep your prayer and good thoughts coming!!

Working on Movie Trailer

Didn't take much time off this past weekend. I helped my Husband Allen put together a movie trailer for Tamir and Genia to show at this movie production/marketing conference in LA that starts tomorrow. They are hoping to meet key people interested in furthering the post production of our film and talk marketing strategies. I am proud of the trailer and want to thank everyone for their in-put. It was tough for us to chose what scenes to work with and how to organize them in a way that explains what Palliative Care is about without putting everyone to sleep. So fingers crossed that we make some positive connections.

I am actually missing the craziness of filming and seeing the cast and crew. I am looking forward to doing the sailor/kazoo scene this weekend, and I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of the all-terrain wheelchair. I want to thank Finly for solving our transport and storage problem!

This weekend also brings a new challenge with the Sunday City of Hope Run event on campus . I anticipate lots of parking issues. Well we can only hope for the best.

Keep the prayers and good thoughts coming!

We Got our Wheelchair!!!

I cannot believe it! We got this amazing all-terrain wheelchair for our wheelchair race scene! We have a huge thanks to give Don Swenson, a dealer with All Out Access, in Ramona, CA. He is letting us use this chair for free! The trick will be transporting it from our house where he will be dropping it off , getting it to the City of Hope for filming, and then getting it back to Don's dealership in Ramona. Anyone have a trailer we can use?? Sounds like a job for U-Haul.

I cannot believe we have this weekend off. I will enjoy the sleeping in, but I would enjoy more the feeling of finishing this movie. We have two more weekends in November to finish, and the final filming and wrap party on Sunday, Nov 19th. It is all coming to a close, and the mixed feelings of exhaustion, sadness, and relief are interesting!

More later. just wanted to share our great w/c news!!!

Last Filming for October

The final countdown will begin in November. We only have 5 more days of filming! We will be taking a Halloween break then back on November 4th. It is strange to think we are nearing the end of this adventure. One thing I have noticed is just how tired emotionally and physically the cast and crew has become. It is rough to give up your weekends for three months. The lack of down time is definitely taking its toll. I was surprised to learn this sense of exhaustion is common in the film industry. It comes naturally enough from the work pace, the continual work of organizing and re-organizing schedules, and the pressure to learn lines and to accell in your job or roll; but something we don't realize is the anticipatory grief  of Having to say good-bye to individuals you now consider friends, and the toll the film itself takes on all of us emotionally. We all want to be tough and professional, but when you are forced to deal with death and dying issues every weekend, it can take its toll. The very material that has drawn us together is wearing us out emotionally. It is easier to blame the physical issues than to accept we are re-working our own personal losses. I don't know how the actors can be so emotionally vulnerable in their rolls and draw on their own experiences to convincingly cry and appear heartbroken. I feel that they do this so well because they are drawing on some deep hurt inside them. The crew cannot help but relate and they begin their own journey of facing their grief. It is rough. We have so many reasons to feel down. I am hoping the weekend will give all of us some time to re-charge and finish this amazing project. I will be forever grateful for all of the wonderful individuals who came together to make my dream of making this movie come true.
Now get some sleep!

Thomas Lives

In an effort to attract local Hospices to support our movie we decided to use one of the patient scenarios to show how supportive and helpful Hospice can be when a terminally ill patient wants to leave the hospital. We amended the course of Thomas' heart failure to allow him to stabilize and explore being transferred to an in-patient hospice or skilled nursing facility with hospice covering his care. We felt this was important information to share and would allow us the opportunity to educate more individuals about Hospice services. This change will see Thomas more alert and enjoying his Navy award and kazoo serenade. I also like the idea of showing not all Palliative Care patients die in the hospital, nor do they die soon after admission. In most cases we help make their lives comfortable and we help them feel valued and cared about for years before they reach this point.

 I will be taking on catering duties this weekend. I am a bit nervous about that as I could never do the amazing job that my friends from Out-patient Clinic did. I will give it my best shot. Giving up almost every week end to help is a lot to ask of anyone, and sometimes it feels like you will never get a weekend to yourself again! So I want to thank my friends for all of their hard work! I would have never gotten this far without you!

We are off next weekend because of cast availability and Halloween celebrations. That leaves us 2 more weekends in November and the final filming and wrap party on 11/19! This is so hard to believe!

Thanks for everyone's support!!

Final Schedule Posted

We finally have a plan to complete filming! We will film this weekend, take the weekend of 10/28 &10:29 off because of cast availability, and then film the next three weekends in November ending with an 11/19  wrap party that will start after the final "cancer survivor celebration" scene. We have a perfect set and oddly enough it is called the Cooper Auditorium! Filming will start at 2:30. We have Cooper until 9pm, then the partying will need to shift elsewhere. I feel a sick day coming on for the Monday following this party.

As I write this I am filled with a mixture of relief and saddness. I will try to focus on making the time we have left together special. This is exactly what I focus on for my patients!! I know there is still time for problems and hurdles to overcome but we are now really close to the finish line, I am hoping  we will handle what comes our way.

So, save Sunday November 19th! We will need a crowd to cheer Niko on and we welcome all friends and family to help us celebrate our completion of an amazing film project.

Keep all prayers and good thoughts coming! We're in the final stretch!!

We May Actually Do This!!

A draft of the final filming schedule just got posted. I know that a lot can happen over the next month but, I am beginning to believe we will actually finish!! The final group scene is tentative for Sunday 11/19 in the Cooper (how cool is that name?) Auditorium at City of Hope. So save the date and start telling your friends too. We will need a crowd. It is the Survivor's Celebration scene where Michael gets to sing!! We are planning a pot-luck wrap party to follow. More details to come.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I want to thank everyone for their input into the name change challenge. I got some great ideas. Seems almost any title has been used at some point. No final decision yet if we really have to change. I am hoping the tag line "Its all about the Journey" will help us stand apart from other Resilient Hearts titled films.

On to filming, we finished our first weekend back at City of Hope. It was nice not to need to turn the air conditioning on and off and to not worry as much about inconveniencing someone by invading their home. I am so grateful to my friends who let us film, I know it was a challenge for them!

Filming this weekend went well. Allen organized the filming of multiple scenes to use in the introduction for the film, and we made it through even though our plea for extras ended up being only  eight. I can appreciate how rough it is to get out of bed on a Saturday morning, I know even I thought about just going back to sleep! But, we made it, thanks to the cast and crew taking on multiple roles. I wanted to give a special shout out to my boss, Dr. Dale and his wife for showing up to help. Also, I want to thank Sorin for joining in while he was on-call. So I hope our audience will be kind when they start counting how many times the same person appears in different roles.

I cannot thank the wonderful nurses I work with from the outpatient clinic. They order and bring in the food,  set up , and cleanup. They also do walk-ons and help man the home base by watching equipment and providing directions to lost cast and crew.We could not make this film without them!

We met for a few hours after shooting yesterday, and I think we have a schedule that will allow us to complete filming by the second week in November as planned. We just have to accept the bumps we will hit. Giving up weekends is tough for the cast and crew too. I just have to go with the challenges and believe it will all work out.

 I want to thank Niko for staying and helping with the schedule. His belief in this project, his willingness to help the other cast members with their scenes, his calmness with the chaos, and his ability to do it all with humor has made Allen and I  want to list him in the movie credits as an Assistant Producer.

All of cast and crew have been amazing, but I think we are getting tired. Three more weekends to go. There is definitely a light at the end of this tunnel!!

Calling All Extras!!

Sorry for my lack of blogging. Things have been crazy trying to organize the final shooting schedule with everyone's personal schedule. We came up with a plan to film the opening scenes and credits and need lots of extras. So, if anyone is available tomorrow between 10am and 5pm please come to City of Hope. We gather at the Biller Center in the main medical building off of Duarte (1500 Duarte, Duarte, CA). No one is expected to stay the whole time, just pop in when you can and take your chances where we are at with filming. All of the cast, crew, family, friends, and City of Hope staff are welcome!!

I am so appreciative of the cast and crew for their dedication and patience. It's rough when some of the cast cannot make a filming. So many are great with their advanced notices, and unfortunately for us, but good for them, are getting other acting work. I am happy for them but we are now at the point that I am forced to write them out of certain scenes as long as it doesn't change the flow of the story. This is painful, but I found in most cases it actually made the scenes better. I don't want anyone to panic, our core cast is irreplaceable. We are just trying to wrap things up by the second week in November at the latest and have limited options. This is the rough part of filming!

I want to thank Jeanne and Bob again for the use of her beautiful home last weekend . She helped make the scenes very special.

We are starting to talk to potential investors and looking at post production issues. We are going to have an awesome film we can all be proud of!

Thanks for all the prayers and positive thoughts. I am starting to feel that we are in the home stretch!!

A New Name?

We finished the last home scene of the movie, now the remaining 4 weekends will all be at City of Hope. Just pray we can finish with only a few minor obstacles. The shoot went well at Jeanne and Bob Lawrence's home. I am so grateful she agreed to let us invade her home. Saturday was only rough because of the weather. The high temperatures made Niko suffer as he played all of his scenes in his red thermal footed sleeper, but he and all the cast and crew were real troopers. It took 52 bottles of water to get through the heat but we did it. It is miserable when temperatures reach into the 90s and you cannot run the air conditioner because of the background noise it causes, and you cannot open the windows because of all the noises outside. So everyone kind of cooked for a few hours! Today was much better and we finished early so there were no temperature issues to deal with. Allen opted to film the interaction between Valerie (Rupinder) and Jeanne as they pass each other in their cars. Jeanne had one line to say after she sees how upset Valerie is. Sounds like a simple scene right? Well, when the cameras finally were set to film a firetruck and rescue unit come roaring down the now blocked street, so everything had to be moved. A neighbor two doors down had to be taken to the hospital and the fire engine needed to keep the motor running. The decision was made to move the filming farther down the street. That's when the neighbors started to come out and ask questions. So a scene that should of taken a few minutes to film was now stretched to two hours! Nothing is ever easy! It was great how patient everyone was. We got through the scene and finished up the house scene in record time thanks to Jeanne and Bobs support. We are planning to have a producer meeting tomorrow to talk business planning for the movie and what it will take to finish filming that is now running into November.One last thought about the Movie: seems the title Resilient Hearts, has been used for a recent documentary about heart disease and for another documentary about Africa. I am thinking about changing the name of the film to avoid any confusion. Any thoughts?? I'm considering:

• Heart's Journey
• Life's Journey
• Laughter and Tears
• The Shadow of Hope
• Transcendence
•