caused him to become blind. Peter Van Houten Peter Van Houten is Hazel and Augustus' favorite author, who wrote their favorite book, the fictional book An Imperial Affliction. Later he turns out to be an alcoholic who is neither planning to write a sequel for AIA nor willing to imagine a future for the characters in the book. He had an eight-year-old daughter who died of leukemia. Patrick The strange support group leader who runs the meeting in the literal heart of Jesus at the church and had prostate cancer. Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster They are Hazel's parents. Mrs. Lancaster's main job is to (as Hazel would say) "hover over her." She eventually plans to become a social worker and is already working for a year on her MSW. Mr. Lancaster is working for a real estate company – Morris Property Inc. He is the emotional one in the family. Mr. and Mrs. Waters They are Gus's parents. They have words of wisdom or Encouragement (as they used to call them) written all over their home. Gus's father along with Hazel agree that they have weird kids. Lidewij Vliegenthart She is the assistant to the author Peter Van Houten who resigns in the latter part of the book. She was the one who first wrote back to Augustus and made Peter reply to Hazel and Augustus's emails. It is Lidewij who takes them for a visit to Anne Frank's house and pays (on behalf of the author) for their dinner at Oranje. After Augustus dies, she finds the last letters that Augustus wrote to Peter Van Houten before his death and emails them to Hazel. Other characters include: Julie and Martha Augustus's half-sisters, both married to bankers called Dave and Chris. Among them, they have three boys. Graham Isaac's ten-year-old brother. Kaitlyn Hazel's only friend from her pre-cancer life. Apparently, she is the one who suggests that Gus might have written something and mailed somebody else. Caroline Mathers Gus's ex-girlfriend who died of brain cancer before Gus and Hazel met. Drs. Maria and Simon Hazel's doctors. Origins After graduating from Kenyon College, Green spent about five months working as a student chaplain at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He has cited this experience as inspiration for his story: I tried to write that book for almost 10 years. Ever since I worked as a chaplain, I would go back,