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A recently released Netflix movie is based on the true events of a Minnesota man who dealt with the hardships of love and loss.
The inspiration behind Fatherhood is Twin Cities Native Matt Logelin.
According to FOX 9, Matt and Liz Logelin were high school sweethearts from Minnesota. They moved to California, got married, and had a baby girl on the way.
Loss becomes prevalent in the story after the delivery of their daughter, Maddy. "It's really mind-blowing, you know. I never thought this would happen," Matt told FOX 9.
Liz was only able to meet Maddy once because 27 hours after giving birth, Liz collapsed and later died from a blood clot that had traveled from her legs to her lungs, blocking her flow of oxygen.
"I was in the midst of celebrating this absolutely momentous moment in our lives with our daughter being born," said Matt. "Then, a short time later, my wife died, and there is nothing in the world that can prepare you for that."
Matt didn't let his grief take away from being the best dad he could be to Maddy. He created a blog about his life being a single father and a widow; little did he know, that blog would eventually turn into a book and then into the movie Fatherhood. "It was never my goal to have a movie made of my life," Matt noted.
In the movie, he is played by actor and comedian Kevin Hart. Hart wanted to use the story to change the narrative about black fathers in Hollywood, FOX 9 reported.
"It's an opportunity to take a story that is pretty universal in love, death, happiness and sadness and everything in between, but we get to tell from a different perspective," said Logelin.
Logelin is now remarried, and Maddy has a little sister with another on the way.
"I hope people see this movie and say if this dad can do this in the midst of these happy moments and the most difficult moments and find a way to be a better father than you would have expected him to be, then hopefully people will find some inspiration in that," Matt stated.