Keillor: Minor stroke a reminder of mortality

Minneapolis — Humorist and author Garrison Keillor writes that a minor stroke he suffered last week left him "essentially unscathed, though touched by mortality."

Keillor, 67, drove himself to a St. Paul hospital after feeling ill, then was taken to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He spent four nights at Saint Marys Hospital before being released last Friday.

In a column for Salon.com, which will be his syndicated newspaper column this weekend, Keillor writes that when he left Saint Marys, "a neurologist shook my hand and said: 'I hope you know how lucky you are.'"

The host of public radio's "A Prairie Home Companion" ends his column with a plea for national health reform.

He's scheduled to begin a new season of his show on Sept. 26 from St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater.