Gordie Howe will always be ‘home’
Ashes of Mr. Hockey and his wife set into base of statue in Saskatoon
Gordie Howe’s dying wish came true Sunday.
The hockey great went home, with wife Colleen, to a final resting place on the Saskatchewan prairie.
Their ashes are forever mingled, set into the base of the Saskatoon statue that bears his likeness, in the city that gave him life and built him into a man.
“Whenever he talked about wanting to go home,” daughter Cathy said Sunday, “especially when things got really confusing for him ... I would often ask him ‘where’s home?’ He would look at me and say ‘Saskatoon,’ like I should know.”
As dementia set in, as death lingered in the foreground, Howe remained sure and steadfast about where he wanted to rest, in peace, when the time came. The statue, he said. Saskatoon.
So the family — 61 of them altogether, both immediate and extended — staged an interment service Sunday morning outside SaskTel Centre, the city’s hockey arena. It’s where Howe’s statue skates in perpetual fashion, elbow upraised, and it’s now where he and Colleen are available for visitation.
Later that morning, family members journeyed to the bridge that bears his name, and the school he attended, and the house he lived in for three years from age 12 to 15.
You can see King George school from that house, and the family retraced the steps he would have taken, from the school door to his nearby home in Saskatoon’s inner-city.
As the procession moved toward that house Sunday, people came out of nearby homes, sat on front steps, watching with great interest.
Across the street, Dolores McCartney sat on her front porch. She’s lived across from Howe’s old home since the mid1970s, and she’s proud of it.
There’s a picture on her phone: Howe, and her son, Deon. Howe’s hands are wrapped playfully around Deon’s neck, tempting a two-minute penalty, if only an official had been nearby.
“He gave you a good feeling when you met him, and it lasts a lifetime,” Deon said When I think about meeting him ... just remembering it brings joy to me.”
After touring the home, the Howe family returned to SaskTel Centre, where the Saskatoon Blades and Swift Current Broncos prepared for a Western Hockey League clash. They held a pregame ceremony in Howe’s honour.
“It was a very, very difficult summer for me,” says Gordie and Colleen’s son, Mark Howe, who is the Detroit Red Wings’ director of pro scouting. “I’m normally a very bubbly person, really look forward to every day ... but it was tough. A tough summer.
“But I’ve gotten back to work with hockey starting up again, and coming here today, so the healing process is starting to happen, which I’m very grateful for. But you’re going to miss him. You’re going to miss him every day. I turn on my computer, and I’ve got a picture of dad standing in the back of my boat. When I’m home, I’ve got a big portrait of him hanging in my house.” Mark Howe paused. “He’ll always be there, as will my mom.”