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Susie struck people as exuberant, elated to be there.15 At dinner in the great room, where an oversize fireplace took the chill off the high mountain air, she was chatty and outspoken, proposing that the guests take a straw poll about the upcoming election.16 Afterward, when the table had been cleared and everyone was thinking about dessert and coffee, she stood in the kitchen, telling people how much closer her illness had brought her to her daughter.17 Suddenly, she blinked and said there was something funny going on inside her head.18 For a split second, Herbert Allen thought she was doing a silly dance step. Then he realized she was going down. As her legs buckled, he and Barbara Oehrle caught her before she hit the floor.19

They carried her to a nearby couch, where the yoga teacher Herbert Allen had brought in for the weekend held her. They sent Warren off to their cabin to get her pills. Susie’s health had always been so uncertain, and she had pulled through so many other crises, that nobody thought it was that serious. Still, they put through a call for paramedics. Warren called Susie Jr., who was at the Democratic Convention in Boston with Bobby Shriver and Bill Clinton, watching John Edwards speak. He said something about a headache and asked for Dr. Isley’s phone number. She gave it to him and he hung up. She wondered briefly if something was wrong, then thought, My mother could have broken her toe and he would be calling for Dr. Isley’s number.20

Lying on the sofa, Susie was having trouble lifting her arm. She vomited a couple of times and said she was very cold and her head hurt terribly. They wrapped her in blankets. She began drifting in and out of consciousness, at times struggling to speak. Warren had managed to get the information about her prescriptions that the paramedics would need. As he observed Susie’s condition, he grew more and more distressed; it was becoming apparent that she had probably had a stroke. The other guests waited, helpless, for the ambulance to arrive. The time passed slowly. After a while they all grew more hopeful when Susie commented that her head felt better and started responding when asked to move her arms and feet. Then the paramedics arrived and did a few tests. They placed her onto the ambulance cot and wheeled her outside, as Warren followed. After lifting her into the back of the ambulance, they climbed inside and shut the door. Warren got into the front seat and the driver began the thirty-four-mile journey through the winding mountain roads to West Park Hospital in Cody.21

As soon as they were in the ambulance, Warren called Susie Jr. “You need to come here,” he said. “Something has happened to Mom. I think she’s had a stroke.” A few minutes later he called again and said, “You need to find your brothers and bring them with you.”

Susie Jr. reached Peter in Omaha, where he was in his hotel room preparing for the show. She found Devon in a Wal-Mart in Indiana. “Where’s Howie?” she asked. “In Africa,” said Devon. “He’s landing in about half an hour.” Susie Jr. tried to hurry the NetJets plane that was coming first to Boston to pick her up and then to collect Peter in Omaha before continuing on to Cody.22 By then, Howie had landed in Africa and gotten word to call his sister right away. His first thought was, Something’s happened to my dad. His second thought was, Something’s happened to Peter. “I absolutely did not think it was my mom,” he says. He was horrified to be stranded with no way to get a return flight until the next day.23

While Susie Jr. worked on logistics, Herbert Allen and a friend, Western sculptor T. D. Kelsey, followed the ambulance in Allen’s car. They grew frustrated at how slowly the ambulance was proceeding; it upset them that Buffett was trapped inside and subjected to the interminable ride. At one point they pulled up alongside the ambulance and Allen shouted at the driver, asking what on earth was going on, but no one answered.

When they finally reached the hospital, the CAT scan revealed that Susie