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.