I met Hugh Jackman in the park on Monday.

I know, it sounds crazy. But I did. And I have witnesses.

Just ask Neylan McBaine, or her brother-in-law Quen Smith. Quen was the one who spotted him.

When we realized it was him I pulled out my phone and called my mom. Our exchange went something like this..

Me: Mom, you are not going to believe this, but Hugh Jackman is in the park. He is standing 10 yards away from me.

Mom: NO WAY!

Me: YES WAY!

Mom: We’ll start praying!

Odd, your thinking right? What an odd response. But if you know me well then you will understand why my sister Tess sent out a mass text to my family to ask them to start praying for me.

Let me explain…

It was fitting that Neylan and I were together when we clapped eyes on Mr. Jackman. 18 years ago I read a book about a person who became a hero to me. Neylan read the book too b/c in those days there wasn’t a single thing that we didn’t experience together. She knows ALL about my years and years of loving this book. She loved it with me.

The book was about this darling man, Edward Sheldon.

I get a little emotional just looking at this picture – tied up in his sweet face is so much of youthful longings, my love of things beautiful, my desire to do what is right, and my yearning to understand God’s purpose for me.

Ned was a remarkable human being. He had everything – and I mean the world at his fingertips – and then it was all wrenched away from him. But he refused to be defeated. He chose to love in the face of massive disappointment and rejection and carry on when most of us would have thrown the towel in.

He was born in Chicago in 1918, went to Harvard, had a hit play on Broadway before he’d graduated, was engaged to the “it” girl and beloved by all who knew him b/c he was such a generous, humble, enthusiastic and loving friend. In his late 20’s he was diagnosed with a very rare form or rheumatoid arthritis which left him paralysed and blind.

He spent the next 30 years of his life bedridden. But these years were remarkable years where Ned became the epicenter of American theatre – he influenced EVERYONE from Eugene O’Neill to Helen Hayes.

The person I am most grateful he influenced was a 14 year old girl named Eliza Julia Kelly.

When I was accepted to the masters program at RADA I knew what I wanted my thesis to be about. Ned. So I went to Cambridge, MA with my mom to Harvard’s theatre collection and looked through the boxes of Ned’s personal papers. I saw his handwriting in the margins of his play manuscripts. I’ve done his temple work with the help of my parents and Cameron.

In London my adviser didn’t really understand what I was trying to do. He gave off the vibe that he thought my idea was pretty rummy. It wasn’t hip and groovie, he was more interested in the students who were writing about the globalization of theatre.  He didn’t really know what to do with me and left me to my own devices. The play didn’t work. So I wrote a screen play – not knowing anything about how to write one. This draft pretty much stunk. And for the last seven years I’ve wanted to write a decent screen play about Ned’s life. I have notebooks full of my efforts. Last year, by some miracle, I was accepted into Ela Their’s writing lab. Ela is NY’s best screen writing teacher, and in my opinion one of the best teachers in the whole world, period. Under her inspired tutelage I wrote the first 30 pages of a decent raw draft. Then I had a baby and the project was again put on the back burner.

What does all this have to do with Hugh Jackman?

Well, I realize that I am not alone in thinking he is an incredibly talented actor. He also seems to be a man of integrity and goodness. And to date he is the only one I know of who could play the part of Ned.

So when I saw Hugh in the park, it wasn’t just a moment to brush shoulders with “the sexiest man alive” it was a chance to meet the man who I hope will one day play Ned Sheldon. My family knew this, and so they started praying.

And so I did it, after an hour of pretending not to notice him, I approached him and spoke to him. I told him about Ned and that I was writing a screen play in-between changing diapers. I FELT LIKE A GIGANTIC GOOBER! But I did it to show the Lord that if he was generous enough to line up an opportunity like this I was going to have guts! and I was going to take it! I don’t think it really matters what I said, just that I took the chance to talk to him. Because it really and truly felt like a gift from Heaven.

And Hugh was so kind to me (aka the GIGANTIC GOOBER) and do you want to know the thing that struck me most about him? It was that he was a human being. A regular guy. He may be the top paid actor in Hollywood, a Tony award winner, the host of the Oscars, the star of last weekend’s top grossing film – and I am just a stay at home goober, I mean mom – but the thing we share in common is this – He is God’s son. And I am God’s daughter. And in God’s estimation, we are equal.

Standing next to him in the park I felt that equality.

And I am going to, with God’s help and His perfect grace, write my brother Hugh a stink’n awesome screen play to star in.

And you’re all invited to the screening.

BRING IT!