They're an unlikely pair: a 31-year-old Hollywood actor and his 89-year-old neighbor. But Norma Cook and Chris Salvatore are inseparable.

"She called me the grandson she never had," Salvatore said of Cook. And he considers her a grandmother, whom he describes as “friendly but sassy,” and with a stubborn streak. But recently Cook, who has leukemia, became gravely ill, and spent two months in the hospital battling pneumonia and breathing problems.