Garrison Keillor called me back Monday because he was touched by the "sweet message" left on his voice mail.
I telephoned Keillor last week when his Facebook pals informed me that the humorist and author reported being in the hospital. Doctors later determined Keillor had suffered a mild stroke.
Near as I recall, my message said that my mother taught me that you don't ask why someone is sick, you just wish them well. But, I asked Keillor, how do I behave when someone publicly posts personal stuff?
"That was a very sweet message, your mother bringing you up just to wish people well and not to ask what's going on with them," Keillor said in that distinctive baritone, followed by that equally distinctive laugh.
I mistakenly asked Keillor if he does his own Twittering, and he corrected me. "I'm not a Twit," he said. Facebook is his outreach. Because some big celebrities have their assistants do their updates, I asked if he updated his own Facebook page. "Well, sure, of course," Keillor said. He was surprised by how quickly his Facebook friends shared his news with people like me. "Those are all people I know mostly," he said. "I didn't know I was putting out a press release when I did that, so I will be forewarned."
The storyteller painted quite the picture of his hospital stay. "Well, listen, kid, I was down at Mayo for four days, towing my IV behind me and trying not to look into the rooms of the stroke ward. But you do, of course, and there are all of these people who are collapsed and trying to walk and here you are waltzing along and you feel like the guy at D-Day who suffered a sprained wrist."
I told Keillor about a health scare with my well-mannered mother, who took ill in Ohio on a cross-country car trip. (Thanks to Lima Memorial Hospital for tremendous care and to NWA/Delta for its emergency tix.)
Keillor said I should write about my family. "Nothing bad happens to a writer," he said. "Everything is material. Now I have my column for this week. Absolutely."