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By Root 3074 0

Fire to the National Mall in Washington as part of the celebration for the grand opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. One day he called his father to say, Dad, we’re setting up the tent! Afterward he realized that, in the past, he would have called his mother, who would have told his father. It felt good to have a direct connection.4 Warren gathered a group of friends and flew to Washington to attend the cocktail party and opening night. By the time Spirit opened, Peter had released or contributed to thirteen albums and soundtracks. But with the show, Warren felt a different connection with his son—not just because of Peter’s success, but through the effort they were making to be part of each other’s lives.

When Spirit arrived in Philadelphia, it got the kind of recognition that Buffett understood: It was compared to “a Native American version of Philip Glass’s dance performance/opera 1,000 Airplanes on the Roof” with “guitar rolls that would put U2’s The Edge to shame.”5 Its costly production, however, meant that even with high ticket prices, Spirit was losing money as a touring show. Peter put it on hiatus and while working on a new CD, Gold Star, the first in which he would perform as a singer, began to consider what to do about Spirit’s longer-term future.

Howie had published On the Edge and Tapestry of Life, books of his photographs, and had given exhibitions and lectures on his photography and work in the Third World. His foundation office still looked like a teenage boy’s bedroom, with toy jeeps and backhoes and equipment reminiscent of his old teenage CB radio. But his business experience had ripened; he now served on the board of Lindsay Manufacturing and ConAgra and had faced the task of firing two CEOs. Savvy about money, he had kept his CCE stock and had invested in Berkshire Hathaway stock. This latter gesture bonded him to his father as nothing else could. Warren observed how much his son had settled down and matured in the past ten years. Howie, a “marshmallow” emotionally who had always been so close to his mother and had yearned for a warm connection to his father all his life, now saw an opportunity to have a different sort of relationship with him. He and Devon bought a house in Omaha so they could be nearby.

The events following Susie’s death affected Astrid deeply. She had lost someone she considered a dear friend, then found out that Susie’s life had run on parallel tracks—one of which had always been invisible to her. Years of staying behind the scenes out of deference to Susie and to a marriage that, however unconventional, had been held up to all as some kind of ideal suddenly was revealed as based on a falsehood. She knew Susie’s mesmerizing power over Warren and had seen Warren’s bathtub memory at work many times, but she was furious that Warren had allowed this to happen and felt betrayed and used. Belatedly, he recognized how high a price Astrid had paid for the arrangement he and Susie had worked out, the realities of which they had both avoided facing all these years. He took the blame and went to work setting things right. Gradually, as he passed through the stages of mourning, he brought Astrid more and more into his public life.

In December, Warren sent all of his grandchildren large checks as a Christmas gift. He had always paid for their college tuition, but he had never before given them money without any strings attached. He wrote each of them a letter offering advice on how to spend it. Do a little something fun, he said, and also pay down your mortgage. But I won’t judge you if you blow it. You’ll get another check next year.6

Buffett made two exceptions to the checks. He did not include Nicole and Erica Buffett, Peter’s adopted daughters. Big Susie had loved Erica and Nicole. They had shown up at her funeral dressed in long flowing outfits and wailed like a pair of brunette banshees. Susie had left each of her “adored grandchildren,” including Nicole and Erica, $100,000 “as a hug” in her will. But ten days after Susie’s funeral, Warren had told Peter, “By the