The former mayor of Gary, Indiana is recovering at a local hospital after falling ill last week. Rudy Clay ended his mayoral bid in early 2011 so he could concentrate on beating prostate cancer.

The 77-year-old says he nearly passed out last Saturday afternoon after attending funeral services for a former high school classmate.

Clay was transported to Methodist Hospital Northlake Campus in Gary where he is now listed in the intensive care unit.

Doctors are still trying to find out what happened, but Clay felt well enough to answer his cell phone this afternoon in the hospital.

“First of all, I want to thank the people that’s concerned, I want to thank the people that prayed for me,” Clay told WBEZ on Tuesday. T”his here just came over all of a sudden. I feel better.”

Clay is a longtime political figure in Northwest Indiana having served for a time as a state legislator, Lake County, Indiana Commissioner and head of the Lake County Democratic Party.

After he dropped out of the Democratic primary in 2011 Clay endorsed Karen Freeman-Wilson for mayor over her next closest opponent Ragen Hatcher.

Freeman-Wilson visited Clay this week at the hospital.