Tom Hanks' Daughter E.A. 'Cracked Open With Emotion' Over The Idea Of Visiting Disneyland After He 'Dies'

Tom Hanks' daughter, E.A. Hanks, opens up about the deep bond she shares with her father in her memoir, "The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road,"

In contrast, she recounts a turbulent childhood with her late mother, Susan Dillingham, marked by emotional instability and suspected mental illness.

Despite painful experiences, E.A. Hanks also recalls moments of care and warmth she experienced as a child from her mother.

For Tom Hanks' daughter, Elizabeth Anne (E.A) Hanks, Disneyland is not just a theme park but a backdrop to countless personal memories.

In her new memoir, the 42-year-old writer reflects on how the California destination has been a grounding force throughout her life.

"Disneyland has been more of a constant in my life than any house I have ever lived in," she wrote, per E! News. "I have spent Thanksgiving there. I have spent Christmas there. I have spent more birthdays than I can count there."

But what makes it truly meaningful, E.A. explained, is the time she spent at the park with her father.

For her, Disneyland became a place where their bond deepened over the years, and the thought of losing him someday casts a bittersweet shadow over those memories.

"I cannot separate my emotional connection to Disneyland from my emotional connection to my father," she explained, "because like many other California daughters, I have spent a lot of time at Disneyland with my dad, and because one day he'll die."

In her book, E.A. explained that Disneyland isn't just a place filled with nostalgia, but it is also where her father lives on in more ways than one.

His voice as Woody in "Toy Story" echoes throughout the park, woven into rides and merchandise. At 68, Tom's presence is forever stitched into Disneyland's fabric especially considering he also portrayed Walt Disney in "Saving Mr. Banks."

"I was thinking about that first time I will come back to Disneyland after my father dies—and how I will hear him when I hear Woody," she shared. "In that moment, it was as if it had already happened, that I was somehow touching on what future me would feel, and I cracked open with emotion."

Still, that thought brings comfort. To E.A., "Disneyland ensures that a part of my dad will live forever."

E.A. also noted that the happiest place on earth has become "a monument for art, against death."

"Walt's vision survives, and some part of my father will too. Art survives," she wrote.

Though E.A. shares a warm and loving bond with her father, her relationship with her mother, Susan Dillingham, known professionally as Samantha Lewes, was far more complicated.

In her book, she reflected on a chaotic and often unsettling childhood, revealing that she suspects that her mother, who passed away from cancer in 2002 at the age of 49, may have suffered from undiagnosed mental illness.

"Saying that my mother was mentally ill, that she was possibly 'bipolar with episodes of extreme paranoia and delusion,' makes sense of the nights sitting with her on a blanket in the driveway," she wrote. "my mother sobbing and convinced there were men inside the house, bugging the walls, waiting for us in our bedrooms."

E.A. shared that by the time she was 14, she began to realize that her childhood was "not right."

She noted that there often wasn't enough food, schoolwork went unsupported, and she shouldn't have been "woken up at three in the morning to hear an impromptu lecture on why yoga was the devil's work."

E.A. paints a vivid picture of life with her late mother. While she clarified that Dillingham never physically beat her, she describes other troubling behaviors that left a lasting impact.

"She pushed me, shook me, pulled at my hair, and locked me in a closet once or twice … she told me there were men hiding in her closet who were waiting for us to go to sleep to come out and do horrible things," E.A. shared.

She also recalled unsettling conversations about "dozens of miscarried babies" and the idea that E.A. might one day join her lost "siblings" in "eternal limbo."

Despite these traumatic memories, E.A. acknowledged the special moments she shared with her late mother.

The writer shared that Dillingham, who battled mental health struggles, drove her "all over California to horse shows at ungodly hours."

She also noted that her mother would "cut up cookie dough for my friends sleeping over and let me dye my hair every color I wanted."

E.A. eventually moved out of her mother's home to live with her father, Tom Hanks, his wife, Rita Wilson, and her two half-brothers, Chet and Truman Hanks.