Tom Hanks. Photo by Jordi Vidal/Getty Images
Tom Hanks is one of the most widely-loved celebrities in the world, and his decades-long career has made him a cultural icon of our time. Beyond that, he’s also just ridiculously easy to like. Tom and his wife, Rita, were some of the first major celebrities to contract Covid-19. And he’s been very outspoken about the virus since. Now, he has reached out to a boy named Corona for the most heartwarming reason.
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Recently, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have donated their blood to coronavirus research. CNN reported that the couple weren’t approached to give blood, but instead offered their plasma “to the places that hope to work on what [he] would like to call the ‘Hank-ccine'”.
— Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) March 23, 2020
Now, the couple are self-described as feeling “just fine and dandy”. So Tom’s using his quarantine time to do good in the most endearing way possible.
“Dear Friend Corona”
One thing you may not know about Tom Hanks is that he’s an avid collector of typewriters. Yes, typewriters – be sure to archive this information for your next trivia night, folks. He’s collected these devices since the 1970s and now boasts a collection of over 250 typewriters.
So when a young fan named Corona wrote to Tom to tell him about the fact that he was being bullied for his name, Tom had the perfect solution. BBC reported that Corona De Vries, 8, first wrote to the Toy Story star after he fell sick with the virus in Queensland.
Corona expressed concern in his letter to Tom, asking “Are you OK?” after learning about the actor’s infection. The boy continued on to say that he liked his name, but was now being called “coronavirus” at school. “I get very sad and angry when people call me this,” he wrote.
Moved by this letter, Tom decided to write back. He started by addressing the young fan with “Dear Friend Corona”. How sweet?
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“You’ve got a friend in me”
The Forrest Gump actor told Corona, “Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful! Thank you for being such a good friend – friends make friends feel good when they are down.”
And if that isn’t enough to melt your heart, Tom continued to write: “You are the only person I’ve ever known to have the name Corona – like the ring around the sun, a crown.”
Tom also sent the boy a special vintage Corona-brand typewriter which he had been using on his trip to Australia. He ended his letter by explaining his gift: “I thought this typewriter would suit you. I had taken it to the Gold Coast, and now, it is back – with you. Ask a grown-up how it works. And use it to write me back.”
The letter ended with a hand-written note: “PS. You’ve got a friend in me”. Anyone who has seen Toy Story will find it difficult not to sing that last line, including eight-year-old Corona De Vries.
It just goes to show that we’ll make it through this pandemic, one small act of kindness at a time.
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