Howe improving in recovery from stroke, son says

NEW YORK -- Gordie Howe continues to show improvement in his fight to recover from a stroke he had Oct. 26. He is recovering and rehabilitating in Lubbock, Texas, where his daughter, Cathy, lives.

Mark Howe, Gordie Howe's son and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said Wednesday prior to the game between the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden that his father walked approximately 50 feet with assistance from his son Murray on Tuesday.

Mark said Gordie Howe could barely lift his right foot last week.

"When Marty and I got in there on Tuesday (of last week) he was happy to see us and he had a smile on his face, but basically you put your hand against his foot and he couldn't push, couldn't resist," Mark said. "His right arm began to move just a little bit, but basically his whole right side was shut down. My younger brother Murray stayed until today, sent me a video clip, and my dad walked maybe about 50 feet on a walker with Murray on his side, big-time assistance. But from what I saw a week ago, I think it's just tremendous."

Mark said his father's right arm is getting better and his speech is improving. He said they have a speech therapist and a physical therapist working with Gordie, who is 86.

"But he gets fatigued, which you do quite easily," Mark said. "I think it was Wednesday or Thursday, Marty and Murray were holding my dad and it took him about two or two-and-a-half minutes to lift one foot, lift his right foot and put it down again. Then about three minutes later he did it again. Well those two steps exhausted the heck out of him, so he had to get to bed.

"There's a lot of work. He needs his rest. But I think when I explained it last Wednesday I said he has a mile race and he's taken one step. I would say he's maybe 100 yards into the mile race. Although it may seem small, from what he was on Tuesday to a week later, I just think it's tremendous. The nicest thing is, we go in there and I did FaceTime with him, and he's just happy and smiling. To me that's the most important thing."

Mark said he and his brothers have devised a schedule for when they will be in Texas to tend to their father.

"Murray stayed there for a whole week, Marty is going to go in there on Friday and spend a week, and the following Saturday I'm going to go in there and spend a week," Mark said. "We're going to see how dad is at that stage. I still strongly believe there's going to be a lot of work to do after that, but just the strides that he's made in the last seven, eight days is remarkable."

Mark said they are keeping Gordie busy by having him watch family videos. He is also watching the video of the tribute the Red Wings paid to him at Joe Louis Arena last Friday.

Howe spent 25 seasons with the Red Wings. He won the Stanley Cup four times, led the League in scoring six times and won the Hart Trophy as League MVP six times. When he retired in 1980 he was the League's all-time leader with 801 goals and 1,850 points. He was enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.

"I made up memory sticks of all the family slides and transferred it to DVD and we plugged that in the TV so he's watching family videos," Mark said. "At Christmas, Craig Simpson helped me out a lot. CBC came in and spent about an hour at my son's house and we were all there, and they quick overnighted the DVD to us so dad has been watching that. The gesture they made at the Joe the other day, with dad's memory not being very good anymore, you can run it a few times a day and it's like new. But it's great because for us our biggest thing is to keep him happy and keep him motivated to want to do good. My brother Murray said he's having to hold dad back, but that's his nature for anybody who knows him.

"We're extremely encouraged, but on the other side we're also very realistic that he might not get it all back. We're just worried about another stroke because he's been having some small strokes. He had a bigger one about six weeks ago and he was in the hospital. They've said to us that there's not much that they can do. This one here was pretty bad. He was pretty well non-responsive for 15 or 20 minutes. We're just praying that the big ones are over and he stays on the right track. All you can do is just cherish every day."

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