Posted this in DPS (S) before. Now repost here to share with
other HP's fans. 
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J.K. Rowling receives thousands of letters from adoring fans, but
one letter touched her more deeply than any other. In an article
titled The Rowling Connection, Brian Bethune of Macleans
magazine told the story in the November 6, 2000, issue.
In Toronto, nine-year-old Natalie McDonald was dying. She was
obsessed with the Harry Potter books. Remembers family friend and
political activist Annie Kidder. They had been her respite from
the hell of leukemia. And because Im the sort of person who thinks
there must be something I can do, I badgered Rowlings publishers
in London, sending them a letter and an e-mail and a fax for
her.
Passed on by the publishers, the letter arrived at Rowlings
Edinburgh home a day after the author had left for a holiday in
Spain. When I came back two weeks later and read it, I had a bad
feeling I was too late, Rowling told Macleans. I tried to phone
Annie but she wasnt in, so I e-mailed both Natalie and her mother,
Valerie because Annie hadnt told Valerie what she had done.
Rowling was right in her foreboding the e-mails were received
the day after Natalie died on August 3.
Jos e-mail was beautiful, Kidder says. She didnt patronize
Natalie, or tell her everything was Ok; she addressed her as a
human being who was going through a hard time. She talked about her
books and her characters and which one she liked best.
The story might have ended there, but Valerie McDonald wrote back,
in thanks. That letter touched deep, Rowling says slowly, trying
to explain the esteem in which she holds Natalies mother
. So a
regular correspondence began, and an unexpected friendship
.
But even before that, the author had quietly commemorated the
reader she never met.
On page 159 of Goblet of Fire, the famous sorting hat of Hogwarts
Schhol of Witchcrafts and Wizardry sends first-year student Natalie
McDonald the only real person in any of Rowlings novels to
Harrys own Gryffindor house.
Taken from People in the News J.K. Rowling by Bradley
Steffens.
