GORDIE HOWE AFFECTED BY MEMORY LOSS.
Former Detroit Red Wings great Gordie Howe of Floral, Sask., has become a voice for awareness of dementia and similar conditions since losing his wife of 56 years. Howe is now facing his own fight with memory loss.
While the actual diagnosis is not clear, his family said the legendary National Hockey League and World Hockey Association player — nicknamed Mr. Hockey — has been suffering from some sort of deterioration in recent years.
Marty Howe, one of Howe’s sons, said that while his father’s memory slips at times, it has not been pinpointed what condition he has.
“He has memory problems, but it is not dementia,” Marty Howe, who also serves as his father’s business manager, said in an email. “His problems started about seven to eight years ago, so if it were dementia, he would not be with us anymore or so bad that he would not be able to keep up with his appearance schedule.
“Gordie averages three to five appearances a month. Appearances are what keeps him young as he loves meeting and interacting with people and his fans.”
Howe, who turns 84 next month, previously has experienced heartbreak at the hands of dementia.
In March 2009, his wife Colleen died from a rare form of dementia, known as Pick’s disease.
Another of Howe’s sons, Dr. Murray Howe, an Ohiobased radiologist, said his father faces the struggles of many other people his age, but he doesn’t believe he has dementia, as stated in other reports Thursday.
He said his father remains a workhorse and is extremely active in his personal life.
“He definitely has shortterm memory deficit, but it seems to be very focal,” Murray Howe said Thursday. “His other cognitive functions are really either as good or better than baseline for an 83-year-old man.
“He’s had most of these issues for the better part of eight years, but they are really more noticeable in the last few years since my mother died because she was the sole initiator for everything in the relationship. My father is very flexible for any situation. He waits for whoever he’s with to say, ‘Hey, let’s do this or let’s do that,’ and he’s happy as a clam.”
Murray Howe noted that his father’s progression of any memory loss is extremely slow.
“One of our biggest con- cerns is that the memory loss is going to get worse where he’s not able to be himself,” he said. “It seems to be a relatively stable process.”
The Hockey Hall of Famer, born in Floral, Sask., had a playing career that stretched over five decades from his rookie year with Detroit in 1946-47 to his first retirement with the team in 1971. Then came his jump to the upstart WHA from 197374 until his second retirement in 1980. He made his final appearance in a single game with the International Hockey League Detroit Vipers in 1997-98.
Howe’s sons Mark — who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year — and Marty also enjoyed professional hockey careers. Gordie Howe came out of his first retirement to play with them on the WHA’S Houston Aeros.
He currently splits his time evenly between his four children. He spends about three or four months with Murray in Ohio, Mark in New Jersey, Marty in Connecticut and daughter Cathy in Texas — a destination which Murray said is his father’s “warm getaway.”
While Murray said his father thrives on regular physical activity, any length of time away from that — combined with a hectic appearance schedule — can lead to difficulty remembering, but only in the short term.
“He is very much aware of his short-term memory loss. It pisses him off,” Murray Howe said.
“He can tell you every hole on every golf course he’s played. He’ll remember every hockey game he ever played in and every opponent. His long-term memory is completely intact.”