My old daddy always told me, “Boy, expect little from people and you will rarely be disappointed.” I have always taken that advise to heart and, like he said, I have rarely been disappointed or surprised. This is the story of one time that I was surprised, but certainly not disappointed.

The story begins a couple of months ago. My sister-in-law, Evelyn has terminal Cancer and is in hospice care. She is pretty much bed-ridden. One thing Evelyn said that she regretted is that she is unable to go the movies anymore. You see there was this documentary that had just come out called “Buck”, it is the story of Buck Brannaman, a horse trainer and the leading practitioner of “Natural Horsemanship”. The movie won a number of awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and has been touted to win an Academy Award in the category of Documentary Film.

Now I’m sure that many of you may not be aware of who Buck Brannaman is but I bet a lot of you saw the Robert Redford movie, The Horse Whisperer. Redford’s character was based on Buck Brannaman and the work he does with horses. Evelyn is every bit as much a horsewoman as Mel is, in fact she holds the distinction of being only the third woman in history to hold a license to drive in the big Harness races in Michigan. So her disappointment at not being able to see this documentary about one of her heroes is understandable.

So Mel and I were sitting at home one day when she declared: “There just has to be a way to get a copy of that movie for Evelyn to see.”

I knew that look on her face….she was a woman on a mission and I usually remain quiet and stay out of the way when she gets that look because she suddenly becomes a force of nature in her pursuit of whatever the goal might be.

This time though I Tried to talk some sense into her. “Baby,” I said calmly. “There is no way in hell you can pull that off. The dang movie is a new release and hasn’t gone to video yet. It is a small, independent production company who is struggling to get their product into movie theatres. No way are they going to have a DVD of the movie laying around, nor or they going to just send it to you out of the kindness of their hearts. We’re talking Hollywood here, honey.”

She just smiled that serene, sweet smile of hers and said. “I know, baby, but you just never know until you try.”

I rolled my eyes, gave a snort of derision and went back to watching TV while she busily started sending out e-mails.

Nothing happened for about two weeks then, one day the phone rings. I look at the caller I.D. and noted that it was a strange number I didn’t recognize.

“Mel, do you know a Cindy Meehl?” I asked. Mel came hurrying out of the kitchen and grabbed the phone from me. “Oh that’s the producer and director of “Buck.” she said nonchalantly as if she were informing me that it was raining outside.

My jaw made an audible THUD as it hit the floor and I stared unbelievingly at my sweet wife who was now in deep conversation with a Hollywood mover and shaker. I walked off shaking my head. When will I ever learn not to be surprised by this woman.

Mel stayed on the phone a good thirty minutes and when she finally hung up she walked into the living room as if nothing had happened, got on her laptop and began to surf the web and not saying a word about the call. Finally, after about ten minutes, I couldn’t stand it any longer.

“WELL?”

“Well, what?” She replied innocently. I couldn’t help but notice that she had that “Cat that ate the canary’ look on her face.

“Are you going to tell me what that call was all about?”

“Oh that was just Cindy telling me that she had mailed out a special DVD of the movie for Evelyn to see. She said it was the only one she had and a production copy. I told her after Evelyn watched it we would mail it right back to her.”

THUD.

My jaw hit the floor again.

The film arrived and Evelyn got to watch it and she loved it. We then sent it back to Cindy with our profound thanks and that how I learned that I was wrong…..Hollywood can have a heart. She didn’t have to do what she did and she did it with no fanfare and no publicity. It was a human interest story that could have generated some very positive buzz for her documentary but she nor any of her production company choose to take advantage of it. She did it just because it was the right thing to do and she was able to do it.

Now maybe you aren’t a horse person and maybe have no interest in the subject of this documentary, but it is not all about horses, it also tells the story of how Mr. Brannaman and his brother managed to overcome years of terrible childhood abuse to become functioning members of society.

I urge you, if you have a chance, go see it if for no other reason than simply because it was made by people with a heart and there’s not that many of them left in this world.

Here is a link to a site that tells you more about the movie if you are interested.

http://www.buckthefilm.com/