Tom Hanks got a letter from a little Australian boy who has been bullied at school because his first name is Corona. So the Hollywood star wrote him back with some encouraging words — and the perfect gift to cheer up his spirits.
Corona De Vries, an 8-year-old from the Gold Coast in the Australian state of Queensland, wrote to the Hollywood star expressing the hope that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, had recovered from the illness after visiting Australia.
“I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus,” he wrote in the letter, according to Channel 7 News. “Are you ok?”
The boy said he liked his name, but that kids at school had been calling him the coronavirus, and that it made him “sad and angry.”
Hanks wrote him back, and sent along an aptly-named Corona-brand typewriter.
“Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful!” he wrote. “You know, you are the only person I’ve ever known to have the name Corona — like the ring around the sun, a crown,” the double Oscar winner wrote to the boy.
“I thought this typewriter would suit you,” he added, according to a picture of the letter aired by Channel 7 News. “Ask a grown-up how it works. And use it to write me back.”
Plus, he gave a little nod to “Toy Story” in a handwritten note at the end that said, “P.S. You got a friend in ME!”
Hanks and Wilson have both spoken out about their experience with the deadly virus since becoming some of the first celebrities to share their diagnosis openly.
Hanks went on to host a historic at-home episode of “Saturday Night Live,” and said that he and Wilson were “feeling better” after a brief battle with the illness, while Wilson has appeared on CBS This Morning to talk about her recovery.
