What's really unusual is what's
omitted from the note.
Dear Lib
I should write in case my situation here doesn't improve. This may be the end of my journey. I would like for you to claim the body. No services or memoreal. Cremation, and
The writer was so certain his death was impending that he left instructions for the dispersal of his remains,
yet he never wrote what was about to kill him. Even if he had an overriding health problem that was more certain than anything else to end his life, you'd think he would have written that he was having heart attack symptoms, for example, and not leave Lib forever wondering what had happened. There may be several unreadable pages following this one in the diary, but he should have told Lib what was happening right on the first page, and instead he segued right into what should be done with his remains.
So, did Lib already know he was dying or planned to kill himself, and the note was only a vaguely written farewell, even an afterthought? Had they discussed all of this beforehand? The request for no services or memorial sounds more like a reminder of a past conversation than a first-time request, IMHO. If it was the first time he'd brought it up, he might have at least given a reason why he didn't want any type of funeral. I'm not sure if it's significant that he didn't elaborate on the "cremation," stating where or how he wanted it done.
I wonder how many unreadable pages might have been in the notebook between the first page and the page on which he joked about taking the ashes up in a glider, because if there weren't any then it's strange that he wrote so much about dispersing his ashes but didn't write what he wanted Lib to tell any relatives or friends about his death or that he loved them.
Maybe this guy was just "all business" and preoccupied with practical matters like having Lib call the mystery woman and have something sent to her, but the letter is shockingly unsentimental. Here's where I apologize in advance if this man is someday identified and he had never done anything wrong, but I'm suspicious he might have been a fugitive for years and, knowing he was growing incurably ill, did not want to be identified after his death.
It's an admittedly strange theory, but I think he left Lib with a duplicate copy of those marked maps showing the route he had taken, just in case he didn't make it all the way to the campsite, and he left her with instructions to wait a long time, then retrieve his skeletal remains and clandestinely cremate and disperse them. If this was the case, then both already knew that a coroner couldn't take his remains, nor could he have a funeral that might call into question who he really was. He might have not had many personal connections in his life aside from Lib, either.
But, if this was the case, he probably didn't want her to wait a full five years, so why didn't she come back for him? Did something happen to her in the interim that left her physically unable to make the hike? Was she fearful of being caught transporting his remains and she decided to let him remain in the wilderness?
He seemed certain it would be Lib and not anyone else who would find him, too, or the note would have been addressed to "whoever finds this campsite" and contain the man's name and instructions on how to contact Lib to tell her he had died.
Yet I don't think Lib was camping with him because that would make "I would like for you to claim the body" a strange request. If she was camping with him and had left for a short time, he would have likely written "return to civilization and then have my body brought back by a recovery team" or something similar.
Unrelated, but it would be nice to know what state's tax stamps were on the Camel cigarettes, assuming the stamps were legible.
