Summary Of The Year We Disappeared By John Busby

In the book The Year We Disappeared by Cylin Busby and John Busby, the authors tell the story of police officer- John Busby’s attack and the effect this incident had on their family. One night on his way to work, John Busby was shot in the face, nearly a fatal case. He survived but his attacker was never brought to justice. One of the major themes of this book was that anger and agony from a traumatic event never leaves a person.

After John was attacked, he was rushed to the hospital. The doctors had to perform numerous surgeries to save his life. His recovery time from these surgeries was extensive, leaving John a lot of time to sit with his thoughts. He knew exactly who attacked him but the police were too scared to do anything about it.

John explains, “But watching her mix the formula for my next meal made me seethe. Look what they’ve done to me. Just look what they’ve done to me” (page 159). John’s whole way of life had been altered because of his attacker. This left him furious and with nothing he could do about it. All he could do was sit, suffering at home all day long, every day. John’s anger wasn’t only affecting himself, but it was rubbing off on his family. His sons started to pick fights in school all the time. His wife tried to tell him to get his frustration under control before things got worse. John claims, "I was angry and I planned to stay angry until I got back at the bastards who did this to me. I just didn’t see any way around it. But it killed me to know that my boys were feeding on my hatred” (page 168). No matter how long it had been since the incident, John’s resentment only grew stronger. He couldn’t get past his feelings even when it was negatively affecting his children and wife. He was haunted by these strong feelings no matter

John emphasizes, “I felt pissed off, and this was pretty much all the time. I probably should be feeling happy to be alive, blessed to still be with my family, glad that I didn’t have brain damage, all of the above. Instead I was just angry” (page 187). Still, John couldn’t move past his consuming fury. He wanted revenge and justice so badly that he couldn’t be grateful for his luck. If the bullet had been any higher he would’ve died. He wasn’t able to think about being