Like you Paul, I did not know a thing about the story....except for the "gay cowboy" tag......I thought it was going to be set in the wild wild west, so I got my first surprise in the opening scene, when the year 1963 came up.
From there on in, I watched a life that I had lived, unfold...not one of the main characters, but one of the daughters.
Here was MY story, yet it wasn't my story, it was the story of the people in my life who had created my story. For the first time I was able to see it from their side, feel the emotions that they had felt...the anguish, the fear, the family committment, but especially the LOVE. It was gut wrenching, especially the end, when one was left alone, as was the case with my father.
The fact is, while I lived my story as a child and then as I got older, I really had never had anything or anyone show me how it would have been for the others...so as I sat and watched this movie, it all unfolded there in front of me like I was reading their secret diary or something. What it also showed me, was that I was not the only one who had lived in such a situation, that my story was not as unique as I had always thought it was. I had kept this part of my life secretive to so many people over the years, and here it was now, out for all to see and I had this feeling of relief that it was out there, and I wanted everyone to see it and feel it like I was.
There is no doubt it changed my future life, how fortunate I was to, so many years later, finally know how it all was back then. It was like my father talking to me from the grave, it was as if he waited till I was old enough to really understand, and unknown to me then, it also gave me the opportunity to meet with and talk with so many others who were like him, who also had their own story to tell.
