Flashes of the Stan Mikita of old appear suddenly, but rarely.
There was the time last summer, his daughter said, when the Blackhawks legend grabbed one of his grandson's golf clubs, scooped up a ball and bounced it on the face of the club. Or recently when Mikita picked up a wooden hockey stick that was leaning against the couch, pressed down on it to test the shaft and then began stick-handling a ball.
But those moments are fleeting as Mikita continues to live with suspected dementia with Lewy bodies, a brain disorder that has, among other health issues, stripped him of his memories.
The disorder will prevent Mikita from being present when he is named one of the 100 greatest NHL players during a ceremony Friday night in Los Angeles as part of the 2017 NHL All-Star Game festivities.
"We told him he was being honored," Mikita's daughter, Jane, said. "If it sunk in, we can't tell."
Jane, along with Mikita's wife, Jill, and one of his grandson's, Billy, will travel to L.A. for the ceremony.
"It's going to make me cry," Jane said. "It makes me emotional just because I wish he could see it. He was always so humble and I think more proud of what he did off the ice than maybe what he did on. I just wish he could enjoy it."
Mikita remains physically healthy, continuing to take long walks at the Chicago-area facility where he now lives. In what is not a positive development, Jane said, he recently has begun to sleep more than usual.
On Friday, the Hockey Hall of Famer who spent all of his 22 years in the NHL with the Hawks and is the franchise's all-time leading scorer with 1,467 points will be honored in the Top 100 ceremony along with the sport's biggest names, including Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Mario Lemieux. Also honored will be former Hawks Glenn Hall and Max Bentley and most likely fellow legends Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito and Denis Savard with the possibility of Pierre Pilote, as well as current Hawks Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith.
Since announcing that Stan Mikita had dementia in January of 2015 and a subsequent Tribune article in June of that year that raised awareness to his affliction, Jane Mikita speaks openly and honestly about it.
"Ever since the article in the paper I can't tell you how many people have contacted me on Facebook or I'm walking around in Target and people recognize me and stop and say, 'we have a family member going through something similar and thank you for being public. We know we're not going through it alone,' " Jane said. "If we can use the small public platform that we may have then we might as well do it and help people."
