A tale of two Hanks
Last night on Twitter, a new trending term – Not Tom Hanks! – suddenly appeared.
Sadly, one of our generation’s finest actors and his wife, Rita Wilson, had both tested positive for the Coronavirus.
Coincidentally. I’d mentioned the Forrest Gump actor the other day to a friend. Tom Hanks has done such a good job of keeping his nose clean, so to speak, over the decades. He’s chosen great roles and, presumably, turned down crummy ones.
And he’s genuinely a good guy. How do I know?
He thanked Evansville.
Evansville was one of the settings for the 1992 film A League of Their Own. One of the roles was played by pop star Madonna, who didn’t exactly love her stay in the southern Indiana town. The Material Girl compared Evansville to Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) in a cranky interview with TV Guide magazine.
Well! Her comment hung over the city like a cloud of exhaust fumes. I’m pretty sure the local radio stations refused to play her music that summer.
But Tom Hanks made it better. During awards season he gave a lovely acceptance speech and specifically thanked the warm and friendly citizens of Evansville, Indiana.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson may be just what is needed to add legitimacy to this new virus.
Even though the Coronavirus has been named a pandemic, there are still some who claim it’s a “hoax” and an evil plan to promote the sale of toilet paper worldwide. They growl at the media and concoct wild conspiracy theories. It’s ridiculous and embarrassing.
Get well soon, Tom and Rita. And thanks for sharing your story with us.
As scary as this virus must be for the Hanks family in 2020, an ancestral Hanks cousin also faced a mystery illness long ago.
The cousin was Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. She was only 34 years when she succumbed to the “milk sick” here in southern Indiana.
Poor little Abraham was only nine years old and his sister, Sarah, just 11. The year was 1818 and the summer was terribly dry. Normally, cows would not munch on white snakeroot – it was bitter – but due to the drought, there wasn’t much else to eat.
The white snakeroot poisoned the cows and, in turn, their milk. As the locals drank the milk, unaware that it could kill them, they soon trembled and had terrible cramps. And, sadly, they also developed a fever that made them increasingly thirsty.
More milk to drink. Death came painfully.
Nancy, a kind person, helped nurse some sick neighbors. It is believed she also drank the poison milk. She died that October.
Such a sad story. And if you don’t already have a tear in your eye, there’s this: young Abraham helped his carpenter father, Tom, build Nancy’s wooden coffin.
There’s an intelligent podcast called The Daily, which provides well researched background information on current events. This episode was particularly helpful to me as I searched for an understanding of what’s really going on with this pandemic.
Abraham Lincoln, as you may know, had a delightful sense of humor. Despite the terrible loss of his mother (and, just a decade later, his sister) plus the horrors of the Civil War, he managed to laugh, so as not to cry.
And so, we’ll close with this:
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
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