GROUP GRANTS WISH OF TERMINALLY-ILL BOY; COLORADO PAIR VISITS AILING CHILD THANKS TO MAKE-A-WISH

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- With a green-and-black Nerf football in one hand, Elaine Busse gave 6-year-old Daniel Roth the one present he wanted above all: a visit from she and her husband.

The Busses run a regenerative health facility in Grand Lake, Colo., where Daniel, the victim of a brain tumor, has lived off and on for the past five years with his family. He is the son of Dennis and Joan Roth, of 1837 Stoddard.

Daniel's wish for the Busses to visit him in Cape Girardeau came tru e through the local branch of the Make-A-Wish organization, formed in June 1989. Make-A-Wish works to meet the dreams of children with life-threatening diseases. The organization has chapters and divisions throughout the United States, as well as overseas affiliates.

him in Cape Girardeau came true through the local branch of the Make-A-Wish organization, formed in June 1989. Make-A-Wish works to meet the dreams of children with life-threatening diseases. The organization has chapters and divisions throughout the United States, as well as overseas affiliates.

The couple arrived in Cape Girardeau Monday night and will stay a week.

Elaine Busse said she brought along the football because Daniel collects balls and had asked for an orange football.

"It's not the right color, but we didn't have a choice," she said, explaining that she and her husband couldn't find an orange football in their small town. "But he won't care (about the color)."

The Busses gathered with family members Tuesday morning about Daniel's bed in a downstairs bedroom at the Roth family home. Under the covers lay Daniel, with only his head and small hands showing.

Taking turns, Elaine and her husband, Bob, knelt beside the bed to talk with Daniel. At first the boy's struggled responses came sparingly, but then gained in frequency. Sometime later he went on to faintly sing "Way Up in the Apple Tree" and "Jesus Above All Names" with his brother, Aaron, 11, and sister, Julie, 9.

Elaine Busse talked with Daniel about he and his family's time at their Colorado facility. Every so often she reminded Daniel of horse rides he had taken or a bridge he had helped build over the north fork head waters of the Colorado River.

"You know Daniel, of all the little children I've met, you touched more hearts than some grown men," she said, tears welling in her eyes. "Daniel we all love you."

Daniel told her he loved her too.

Outside of the bedroom after the visit, Daniel's mother, Joan, said Daniel suffered from a tumor at the center of his brain.

"It's on his hypothalamus and optic nerve, which is the worst place you can have a tumor," she said.

The hypothalamus regulates bodily temperatures, certain metabolic processes, and other autonomic activities. Because of the tumor's location on the optic nerve, Daniel's eyesight is also poor.

Doctors from Memphis, St. Louis, and the east and west coasts said Daniel wouldn't live past one year of age, his mother said. Doctors first discovered his condition when he was about five months old, she said.

While talking about her son, she forced herself a few times to keep her composure.

She said Daniel hadn't seen Elaine Busse for 1 years and that because Daniel can't see well and isn't into worldly things people mean the most to him. His poor eyesight kept him from learning the barriers adults typically develop in dealing with one another and enabled him to look beyond a person's surface appearance, she said.

When he met someone, she said, he would instantly accept them and talk to them. People, as a result, open up around Daniel.

"Even though he can't see ... he'd tell people they looked cute and precious," she said. "He would touch them and kiss them and he didn't even know them. And he would also remember everybody's name."

Once about two years ago, his mother recalled, Daniel met an obese woman and told her he liked her dress and that she looked "cute and precious."

"Most people would back off; she still remembers Daniel and she only met him one time," she said. "Nobody ever loved her for who she was because we all get stopped by the surface."

Marsha Edwards, the coordinator of the local Make-A-Wish chapter, said the Make-A-Wish organization approved Daniel's request four days after she got a telephone call from Southeast Missouri Hospital about Daniel. The approval came a week ago Tuesday, said Edwards, who visited the Roth home with the Busses.