Though Luther Vandross [ tickets ] remains unconscious and in critical condition three weeks after suffering a stroke, his mother says she remains hopeful that he will recover.

"Since I live in Philadelphia I go to the hospital every two or three days to have a prayer with my son," Mary Vandross said in a statement issued on Monday (5/12). "I hold his hand and pray with him. Right after the stroke, he was in grave danger; it was very touch and go. But I feel that it is just a matter of time before he improves and to me, his appearance gets better daily. It's a very slow process. But I believe there is nothing too hard for God."

On April 16, the 52-year old singer suffered a stroke at his Manhattan home and, according to published reports, was alone for several hours before he was discovered. He remains hospitalized at Weill-Cornell Medical College, and reportedly is not breathing on his own.

A new Vandross album, "Dance With My Father," is scheduled for release on June 10, and will not be delayed, Mrs. Vandross said.

"Knowing how he loves this new album, I believe Luther would want it to come out now and I'm so grateful that he can get this chance," she said. "He is going to recover and when he does, I want him to be greeted with a big success story. He has to recover, he's all I have left, he's my last surviving child."

Mrs. Vandross said that the new album's title track is especially meaningful to her.

"When I heard it, I felt like I was going to, well, scream. I played it over and over and I cried and cried. I was amazed how well Luther remembered his father, how we used to dance and sing in the house. I was so surprised that at 7 1/2 years of age, he could remember what a happy household we had. It was always filled with a lot of music. Luther's father--who was also named Luther--had a beautiful voice and he would sing and sing. That is where Luther got his gift."