Retired Chronicle writer and PPC board member Bill Workman is making a steady recovery from a stroke in December that left him in a coma for the better part of a month. He’s speaking again, has regained the use of one hand — and his mind is as sharp as ever. He’s out of the hospital and is receiving therapy on a daily outpatient basis. His wife Marla Lowenthal, a professor of mass communications at Menlo College, told Michelle Carter that Bill now plans to finish two freelance stories he was doing for Gentry before his stroke — he has all of his notes, he just needs to type it up. In this photo by Paul Sakuma, Bill gets a kiss from Marla at the 2003 PPC awards banquet.