After several tumultuous weeks, including a scandal that cost the legendary coach his job, and an injury that landed Joe Paterno in the hospital, alumni and fans across the country mailed thousands of cards for his 85th birthday.
Mary Kay Hort told 6News that outpouring of support has raised her fathers spirit in a difficult time and joked that mail carriers have stopped using the mailbox and now bring large boxes full of cards to the front door.
"This has been such an emotional time for a lot of people. I think people want to do what makes them happy and what makes them continue to be part of this, it’s good. I would never say not to send a card," said Hort. "My mom's like, just get the bills out, and then we'll open the cards. He's been reading a lot of them, which has been really great. We're going to try and get most of them of them open this weekend while my nieces and nephews are here."
Hort said Paterno has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home, after a fall inside his McKee street home led to a pelvis fracture.
"He'll be using a walker. They don't him to put weight on it yet, so he's still getting around. It is what it is. You've got to deal with what life gives you. His attitude has always been; when something happens, he doesn't dwell on it. He deals with it," said Hort.
Hort told 6News that Paterno is still undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for lung cancer at Mount Nittany Medical Center.
"He's responding well. He's fighting very hard, he's determined to kick this, and things are really working in his favor right now," said Hort. "We're just really enjoying the fact that we have time together. I was teasing him, I was saying ‘you can't go anywhere, you have to talk to me now.’"
At the TickeyCity Bowl Game media event on Monday, interim head football coach Tom Bradley told reporters that he’s focusing on practice but will visit Paterno after the team returns from Dallas.
"I know coach, I know what he's going to say. ‘Tom, you're wasting your time. You got things to do.’ That's exactly what he's going to say and all he wants me to do is, do the best we can do for the players," said Bradley.
