It was short and sweet, the way Bill Buss would have liked.

About two dozen people gathered at the Rosar Morrison Funeral home in downtown Toronto on Tuesday to remember Buss, a 71-year-old homeless man who died in early June, curled up behind a boarded-up cubbyhole under a staircase on Parliament St., near Shuter St. For three weeks after his decomposed remains were discovered, no one knew who he was.

Those who knew Buss the best talked about the enigma he was, and tearfully apologized for not being with him in his dying hours.

“I can’t remember a single time when he needed anything,” Lauro Monteiro, director of operations at the Good Neighbours’ Club, a drop-in centre near Moss Park, told the small gathering. “Sadly, we weren’t able to help him when he needed us.”

Buss’ legacy, said Monteiro, is that “we improve how we deal with our clients on the streets.”

(The funeral service was organized by the club, paid for by the city. Monteiro said his agency organizes at least 20 to 25 funerals of homeless people annually.)

Monteiro, likely the person who knew Buss best, said he was born in the tiny hamlet of Minitonas near Duck Mountain Provincial Park in central Manitoba. How and when he got to Toronto is unclear, but for the past 17 years, Buss spent his days at the Good Neighbours’ Club. He was there in the library from 8 a.m. until the doors closed at 5 p.m.

Buss wasn’t much of a talker, mostly keeping to himself. Monteiro says the senior was gentle, well-dressed and knew a lot of about mechanics and machines.

He leafed through old encyclopedias and vintage copies of Popular Mechanics magazine and sometimes talked about what he read.

Buss stopped coming to the club sometime in March.

He talked of some family in Windsor, but no one, including police, has been able to locate any.

Ed Keays, of the Good Shepherd Centre, where Buss sometimes went, remembered him as someone always respectful to the clients and the volunteers.

As Monteiro and Keays shared anecdotes from Buss’ life, there were some nods, some laughs. Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) was among those who attended the service.

Anne Marie Batten, a street nurse who took flowers to where Buss’ body was found, said many homeless people came up to her and shared their fear of “dying alone.”

Buss is among the estimated 400 homeless people who are afraid to use shelters and spend their nights outside downtown stores, in hospital lobbies and stairwells.

Many are elderly and frail, and fear being beaten.

As agencies like the Good Neighbours’ Club and the Good Shepherd Centre were holding the funeral service for Buss, their volunteers were looking for another 71-year-old man who frequented the club but has been absent for at least two weeks.

“No one has seen him,” said Monteiro, adding that the man has addictions but has never gone missing for so long.

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After how Buss died, alone and anonymous, Monteiro doesn’t want anyone else to end like that.

Buss was so shy that there is not a single photograph of him at the Good Neighbours’ Club. “I have gone through thousands of photos but not one of his — not even somewhere in the background,” Monteiro said.

So there were no photos at the memorial; just two bunches of white flowers flanking the casket.