SHELBURNE FALLS — Kenneth Butler knew that when he departed for Bradley International Airport on Friday morning it was the final time he would be in his native western Massachusetts until he is laid to rest next to his parents in Greenfield.

The Buckland native says he has stage 4 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, emphysema and secondary blood cancer, and he dreamed of returning to his roots once more before his time comes. This desire was granted by Wish of a Lifetime, a Colorado-based charitable affiliate of AARP that grants wishes to people with advanced illness 65 and older.

“Shelburne Falls is still surviving. And it’ll survive without me even after I’m gone. It’s still here. It’s still a small town and a good place to raise [a] family,” he said in a Shelburne Falls parking lot on Wednesday. “It’s great. Like I said, nothing has changed. Every corner I take, it brings back memories.”

Butler, 66, was born in Holyoke and lived in Colrain briefly before his family moved to Buckland. He graduated from Mohawk Trail Regional School and joined the U.S. Air Force in 1976, serving as a firefighter until 1993. He settled in Rantoul, Illinois, nearly 39 years ago. Though he loved his time as a firefighter, he believes his service and exposure to dangerous elements contributed to his illnesses.

“My lungs are like crepe paper right now,” Butler said, sitting in the front passenger seat of a parked car rented by Wish of a Lifetime and operated by one of Butler’s hospice volunteers. “Up till 2017 I did whatever job to keep the food on the table. I did retail, I did the corporate life, I worked at one of our colleges out there, in the financial aid department. I worked in manufacturing. I’ve been at the top of the hill, where you go to these meetings and they have the Grey Poupon, and I’ve also worked in the factories, where you sweat just like everybody else.”

Butler’s final job was driving a shuttle bus at the University of Illinois. He entered hospice care a year and a half ago and now takes four syringes of morphine, and other drugs, each day to cope with the pain.

On Wednesday, Butler said he was looking forward to driving to North Adams and taking the famous hairpin turn on Route 2. He said he planned to eat at Pete’s Seafood Restaurant in Greenfield and visit his brother in Agawam on Thursday. He stayed at the Howard Johnson in Hadley and was scheduled to fly back to Illinois on Friday morning.

Christina Jay, a Wish of a Lifetime employee, coordinated Butler’s dying wish and is his point of contact while he’s in western Massachusetts. She said she has gotten to know Butler well and he successfully lobbied for his wish to members of the committee that ultimately grants the wishes.

“They just felt so connected to his desire to return home,” she said.

Butler expressed gratitude to Jay, the rest of the Wish of a Lifetime staff and his hospice volunteers for all they have done for him.

“Three years ago [doctors] told me I had a year to live,” he recalled. “My hospice team tells me there’s two things that could happen – either I’m going to [die] in bed, breathing through an oxygen machine and getting morphine every hour, or I’m just going to go to sleep and not wake up again. I like the latter, because I’m not too interested in suffocating to death. Because it kind of scares me.”

He explained he plans to have his remains buried in a family plot in Calvary Cemetery on Wisdom Way in Greenfield.

Jeremy Bloom, a former NFL player and a former U.S. Ski Team member, founded Wish of a Lifetime in 2008 as a tribute to his grandmother, Donna Wheeler. People can submit a wish request at tinyurl.com/SubmitAWish and donations are accepted at tinyurl.com/WishLifetime.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.