Late for the Buss

When you discover you are the eldest, biological daughter of Dr. Gerald Buss, the multi-millionaire, legendary owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, who also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; well, it can take your breath away. As a child, in third grade, Lee Klose overheard her teacher say to another teacher, Well, you know, she's adopted. That hurtful statement launched a lifetime of wondering why she was given away at birth. Late for the Buss: An Adoption Story explores the confusion she felt as a child and the challenges she faced as an adult seeking biological information on her family of origin. From the conflicting emotions she felt after visiting the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Sacramento in 1990, receiving her non-identifying information to her membership in Ancestry.com in 2017 that revealed her parental heritage, this memoir takes you on a bumpy journey through multiple childhood moves, a tumultuous teenage adventure or two, and on to a successful career with several twists and turns along the way. And finally, along with the understanding there is no legal claim to the family wealth, a visit with her birth mother and her biological siblings. The seeds of this book began through several years of journaling, writing about the hope of discovering one's own origins, despite being denied the right to know due to sealed adoption records and the difficulty in securing any information at all.

The story explores the idea of how one decision can alter the life of so many people. If a butterfly flaps its wings. . . Edward Lorenz.