Tom Hanks Gifts Corona Brand Typewriter to Bullied Boy Named Corona: 'You Got a Friend in Me'
Tom Hanks helped one boy cheer up after being bullied for his unique name.
On Thursday, Australian television networks reported that the Oscar winner had become pen pals with 8-year-old Australian boy Corona De Vries after the child sent him a letter while he and wife Rita Wilson were recovering in the country from their positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Corona wrote Hanks to ask if he and his wife were okay. The boy also told Hanks he had been feeling “sad and angry” because classmates started bullying him about his name.
Hanks decided to help make Corona feel better by gifting him a special typewriter he had brought with him on his travels. And it happened to be made by the brand Corona.
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“Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful! You’re the only person I’ve ever known to have the name Corona — like the ring around the sun, a crown," Hanks replied in a letter typed on the Corona typewriter, according to Reuters. "I thought this typewriter would suit you. Ask a grown up how it works. And use it to write me back.”
“P.S. You got a friend in ME!” Hanks added, referencing a famous line from his Toy Story franchise.
WATCH: Tom Hanks Gives Update 2 Weeks After First Coronavirus Symptoms: 'We Feel Better'
Hanks has been opening up about his positive diagnosis now that he and Wilson are back in Los Angeles after fully recovering.
In a recent interview on The National Defense Radio Show, the actor, 63, recalled his and wife Rita Wilson‘s initial symptoms of the respiratory illness.
“Rita went through a tougher time than I did,” he said of their recovery in Australia. “She had a much-higher fever and she had some other symptoms. She lost her sense of taste and smell. She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks.”
He later added, “She was so nauseous, she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities. It lasted a while.”
Hanks, who “had some body aches and was very fatigued,” also shared how he struggled to find the energy to do simple exercises. He and Wilson, 63, were placed in “lockdown for three days” in a local hospital.
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