The Baby

My brothers said that I

Was rotten to the core

I was the youngest child

So I got by with more

I guess she was tired by

The time I came along

She'd laugh until she cried

I could do no wrong

She would always save me

Because I was her baby

I worked a factory in Ohio

A shrimp boat in the Bayou

I drove a truck in Birmingham

Turned twenty-one in Cincinnati

I called home to mom and daddy

I said "Your boy is now a man"

She said, "I don't care if you're 80,

You'll always be my baby"

She loved that photograph

Of our whole family

She'd always point us out

For all her friends to see

That's greg, he's doing great

He really loves his job

And Ronnie with his two kids

How 'bout that wife he's got?

And that one's kinda crazy

But that one is my baby

I got a call in Alabama

Said "come on home to Louisiana

And come as fast as you can fly

'Cause your momma really needs you

And says she's got to see you

She might not make it through the night"

The whole way I drove 80

So she could see her baby

She looked like she was sleepin'

And my family had been weepin'

By the time that I got to her side

And I knew that she'd been taken

And my heart it was breakin'

I never got to say goodbye

I softly kissed that lady

And cried just like a baby