For Christian country singer Rory Feek, making a film about his wife Joey was like being back with her, all over again.
The heart-rending documentary about their life together, their love, the birth of their daughter Indiana with Down's syndrome and then Joey's death in March from cancer is now released.
It had its first public showing last night and will be shown again next month.
To Joey, With Love is on again Thursday October 6 in cities including Nashville, Clarksville, Spring Hill, Murfreesboro, Franklin and Mt Juliet.
Responses on Twitter show the film's powerful impact.
Alison Bonaguro tweeted that she should have bought tissues instead of popcorn.
Pam Fleck tweeted:
Rory, the movie was wonderful. Thank you for sharing this precious gift. #roryfeek
— Pam Fleck (@PamPanel) September 21, 2016 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">Joey and Rory Feek, who won the ACM Award for Top New Vocal Duo, saw their album, Hymns That Are Important To Us, come in at the top of the country charts when it was released.
But earlier this year, in March, Joey died at just 40 years old after a two-year battle with cervical cancer.
"This whole experience of making the film has been incredible because I get to see Joey every day," Feek told told Anthony Mason of CBS.
Their relationship was proof to him there is a God.
"There's no way I could have landed that girl without his help."
It was soon after their daughter was born in 2014 that Joey was diagnosed with cancer.
Rory has a bench near where she is buried on their farm and where he goes nearly every day for a coffee. He doesn't want to be on stage without her. "She loved to be on stage performing. I loved to stand next to her. I just had the best seat in the house in the world."
He also describes working on the film on his blog.
"As I've been spending this summer working on Joey's film, I have been given the gift of seeing our lives unfold once more, right in front of me – day by day and week by week – but this time with hind-sight. With perspective. I was able to watch the story as it was happening, but also be outside of it, because I already knew how it ends. Or more truthfully, how it begins again two years later with just Indy and I," he writes.
In making the film, he says he learned many things.
"First off, my wife is even more incredible than I thought or knew she was. She was so full of light and so filled with life... even when she was dying.
"Her smile was more beautiful, her voice sweeter and her love for Indiana was even greater than I remembered. Another thing that I've learned from the film is how important this little one is to our story."
He says he is "so so proud" of the film: "Proud of my wife. Proud of the chance to share this story with others. I think the film says so much, by never saying anything at all. You just watch a woman live and love and are changed. At least I am."
He also talks of the heartbreaking statistics of Down's syndrome babies and the high abortion rates for those tested as having the genetic condition in pregnancy.
"I get it though. The world has told us that they are less. A mistake. But I don't believe they are. At least I know Indiana's not.
"When she was born, Joey and I said, 'this is the child God wants us to have', and we believed it. And we were right. I can not imagine Joey not having those two years to be a mama to Indiana and get to experience the love and happiness that Indy brought to her. God knew that. He made it so. It was His gift to her. Like Indy is my gift now. She is the smile on the face of father who should be crying. She is the joy in the life of a family that should be filled with sadness."
Of the film, he says: "And you also see a baby born near the beginning that is not the child we expected. But by the end, you – like us – realize that she's not less. She's more. More wonderful and more precious and even more important to our lives and story than we expected."
Watch the trailer and buy tickets here.
