The Story
Presented by ANVL Entertainment Company
Jessica, a freshman college student, falls ill with an unusual and disturbing paralytic condition, altering her plans to become a physician, while testing her faith, resolve and her relationship with her high school sweetheart and love of her life, Lance.
"When I met my husband just before the start of our senior year in high school, I couldn’t have conjured up in my imagination our future before us. A love that developed quickly has endured the challenges that come with a paralyzing chronic sickness."
Lance and Jessica at Rummel football game in 2009
A mysterious flu like illness in the fall of her freshman year of college seemed to mark the derailment of their plans and the beginning of a progressively crippling condition.
Lance carrying Jessica out of church after wedding
"After the devastating blow of being diagnosed with ALS at only twenty years old, my family and I decided we weren’t going to accept the shallow prognosis, that would eventually prove to be wrong by the neurologist.
In our quest for answers to solve this health crisis I faced, I learned of the beauty that can come from the pain. Through my diagnosis of Lyme disease, the tests, the treatments, my turn to natural medicine and stabilization to the birth of my son that doctors doubted I’d get through. From my faith that grew as my physical world diminished, the support from my family that never wavered, the many obstacles that I faced, the falls and get back ups that set me back yet made me stronger. Our journey highlights the resilience of the body and the fact that being diagnosed with a death sentence doesn’t have to be the end regardless of what others, even doctors believe.
Losing the use of my arms, hands, legs, voice, and lungs but the hope that, against all odds, I could heal led to a life I wouldn’t trade. From being carried by my husband up the aisle at our wedding to the birth of our miracle child, our story aims to show the beauty that conspires from a relentless hope."
Lance, Jessica and their son, Jude
Production: A Bit of Background
In the summer of 2019, and through a series of miraculous events, Lance and Jessica were approached by a local screenwriter, Steve Doherty, hoping to write their story into his nearly completed screenplay highlighting his own journey of ill effects and corruption regarding Lyme disease. After they met, he felt called to focus on the couple's story of love and faith instead, while still bringing awareness to Lyme and chronic illness.After several years of meeting and rewriting, Steve was prepared to present his incredible script to producers.
At the end of 2022, Steve landed a meeting with the executive producer of FATIMA, Holly Carney, which eventually led to prolific producer, Lucas Foster and his production company, ANVL Entertainment.
As an independent film, funding for development and production will be from contributions and investments
