They'd spoken so often about his plans for them both

how he could make them their fortune on the American coast

Where there were wide open spaces filled with oil and gold

for those with the gumption to put their own needs on hold

And work like a demon for his wife and himself

yes America's the place where a man can find wealth

Then with his fortune established and his days of toil done

he'd return for his wife and his daughter to come

That's how he convinced her that he really should go

to make a far brighter future than he could give her at home

So she'd stood on the quayside and waved him goodbye

blowing soft farwell kisses with tears in her eyes

And he'd leaned from the railings returning her waves

unaware he was sailing towards a watery grave

For soon she'd read in the paper that the Titanic went down

with so few of the crew or the passengers found

And she tried to imagine the terror they knew

as the unsinkable ship had broken in two

After filling with water from a tear in her side

caused when an iceburge riped her hull open wide

In those icy cold waters amid terrified screams

and the band as it played on with God save the Queen

the rich and the famous with thier jewls round thier neck

and the poor, lowly stearage that were locked below deck

All perished together bar a few that were saved

as that unsinkable vessel slipped under the waves

My Grandmother Mary had been twenty that day

when the unthinkable happened and took her husband away

And though she gave to her daughter all she had left to give

the Titanic took with it her desire to live

An old woman by thirty, grief stricken they said

and ten more years of misery before she was dead

　Found by her daughter on the cold kitchen floor

arms curled as though holding her husband once more

and a smile on her lips she had not worn in years

now free of the lonliness, heartache and tears

and though the scene was so hard for my Mother to find

one thought gave her comfort as it entered her mind

And that was Grandmother was happy at last

as she walked with Grandfather through Heaven's tall grass.

By S.E.Ralph

28-4-2011