Funerals Today, Skips Tomorrow

Elsie met and married Tom in 1942

On the day before his company sailed to France

Vowed their love and kissed and baded a fond adieu

Weeping as they danced the wedding dance

When peace came to their lives in 1945

Elsie thanked her god for the sparing

They moved into a terraced house so glad to be alive

Looked forward to the future they'd be sharing

Tom soon got a job down at the local docks

And the babies they had hoped for soon arrived

And Elsie loved her live cooking meals and darning socks

But it was never easy to survive

Elsie got a message in 1961

And what she heard filled her heat with fear

She gathered up her kids ran to find her daring Tom

But his workmates just stopped her getting near

Three years of fighting in Europe he'd survived

Many pals were lost but he'd come back

And all she had now to let her he'd been alive

Were the memories and the photo edged in black

Tom was a good man, provisions had been made

She knew he'd never leave her in the lurch

But by the time the undertaker and the catering were paid

There was just enought left over for the the church.

In Elsie's street across the years, the families have grown

And communities grow weaker with the ageing

Children grow to adulthood, have children of their own

And life in Elsie's street was quickly changing

Till a few days agao, the evening paper carried verse

And yesterday her children met in sorrow

The vicar said a verse, then they hurried up the hearse

To make way for the builder's skip tomorrow.