Letters From a Sailor: Epilogue #5 1974-1975

Epilogue #5 1974-1975
Note: Buss's last vacation with his Pace Arrow motorhome was in 1974, but only Debbie wanted to go with him. So, the two of them set off for a road trip visiting Hoover Dam, the Great Salt Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Jackson, Wyoming, Oregon, and the southern California coastline. By that late fall, Buss was noticing headaches and an inability to remember familiar names. He was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an inoperable brain tumor. The doctors informed Ruth and the kids that he probably had only six months to live. He retired on February 7, 1975, and spent that year raising rabbits in the backyard in hutches he built himself. At the six month mark, June of 1975, he took one last trip; this time it was by himself on Greyhound Bus Lines to visit his older brother, Carl, and family in Illinois.
This lengthy typewritten letter was presented to him by a co-worker on his 57th birthday. She had handwritten it from the outside-in on a roll of toilet paper. It provides a glimpse into his sense of humor and the camaraderie he shared with those with whom he worked.