Word: hoched
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...Real Magic Of Harry Potter" brought tears to my eyes [ARTS, June 23], not just for the account of author J.K. Rowling's long-distance friendship with Catie Hoch, the young American fan befriended by Rowling as the girl was dying of cancer but also because of the far-reaching effects the Potter stories have on people of all ages. As a teacher, I appreciate the effort that goes into writing the books, and I have used them to teach my students how to use descriptive language to improve their writing. The stories all have lessons to be learned...
...same summer day that 6-year-old Catie Hoch beat her own personal best jumping rope--100 in a row--the doctors discovered that the pain in her side was coming from a tumor on her kidney. "In that split second," her mother Gina Peca remembers, "your whole life changes. You're going along safety-proofing your house and trying to feed your kids the right food, thinking you have control over their safety...
Over the next days and weeks, Catie wrote to her new friend about her birthday party; her friends; her new dog, Potter Gryffindor Hoch (the first name after Harry's surname and the middle one after the dormitory house in which he lives at school). She seemed to be getting stronger, brighter, in her excitement about her new pen pal. Jo wrote back at length, typing from her home in Scotland as the windows rattled in the January gales. "It's a bit spooky," she wrote one night. "I sleep at the top of the house (like Ron) and when...
When the moment comes that parents must trust their children's hearts to another, they pray that whoever fills that space--a teacher, a coach, a character in a book--will be worthy of the power and will use it well. A month after Catie Hoch's ninth birthday, doctors found that the cancer had spread to her brain and that she had only a few weeks left. That was when the phone rang...
...have had contact with Catie," she wrote. "I can only aspire to being the sort of parent both of you have been to Catie during her illness. I am crying so hard as I type. She left footprints on my heart all right." Catie's parents established the Catie Hoch Foundation to help young cancer patients. In November a check for $100,000 appeared, from Catie's favorite English friend. --With reporting by Amy Bonesteel/Atlanta, Cathy Booth Thomas/Dallas, Amanda Bower/Albany, Harlene Ellin/Chicago, Rita Healy/Denver, Broward Liston/Orlando, Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles, Betsy Rubiner/Des Moines and Andrea Sachs/New York