Johnny Depp this week honored the memory of an 11-year-old with a rare heart condition who was a huge "Pirates of the Caribbean" fan.
"Sail on my fellow captain!! You honored us with your life," The 60-year-old actor, who reprised his role as Captain Jack Sparrow last year in a YouTube Video for Kori Stovell in connection with Make-A-Wish, wrote on his Instagram Story Tuesday. "You humbled and amazed us with the courage and strength to be able to smile through it all."
He added, "You’ve shown every one of us how to stay ahead of the curve with grace, humor, an incomprehensible understanding and unparalleled dignity. You are a warrior, mate… We will meet again on the highest of seas… All my love and respect to you and your family always!!! X JD."
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor first came into contact with Stovell of Derbyshire, England, after the Make-A-Wish Foundation reached out to him in December, sending the boy a video as Captain Jack.
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Johnny Depp reprised his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a YouTube video for an 11-year-old's Make-A-Wish. ( Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
"I hear tell of something they speak about in the ages of now called the YouTube channel, which I don't understand, but why not? And I understand that you’re quite the YouTube man," he said as the bumbling pirate, after Stovell started a YouTube channel called "Kraken The Box." "So I shall be glad to follow your YouTube channel and I shall tell all my friends to follow your YouTube channel."
He added, "I shall be there watching every moment and watching moments with you momenting and tubing you – tubing – you – YouTubing. I wish you the best of luck. I’m your number one fan, Captain Kori! All respect and love."
Johnny Depp left a tribute to Kori Stovell whose Make-A-Wish he fulfilled last year by reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a YouTube video. (Johnny Depp/Instagram/Getty)
"Kraken The Box" now has more than 200,000 subscribers.
Stovell, who liked to watch the "Pirates" movies during his hospitalizations and surgeries, had been on palliative care for the two years for hypoplastic left heart syndrome following two failed heart transplants and died on Sunday, according to BBC News and People magazine.
"We are broken beyond belief at the loss," Stovell’s mom Pixi told BBC.
She added, "I would like to thank everyone who has supported Kori and followed his journey. He was humbled and overjoyed at so much in life and we ask that people don't forget him, now he has set sail on his biggest adventure yet."
She said Stovell died at home with his family and went "fairly peacefully."
"His captain's hat is beside his bed and he has a pirate flag over him," she said.
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The boy’s Make-A-Wish dreams in his last months had been to speak with Captain Jack and reach 100,000 YouTube subscribers, both of which he achieved, BBC reported.
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