Deirdre Flint

Grandma's House

Deirdre Flint


Well, the day we moved my grandma out
We got an early start
We wore our jackets in the cold house there
And our smiles like battle-scars
She'd been packing up for months
There wasn't much left there to do
But she'd set aside some boxes
She thought we might sort through
And, oh, each photo tore me wide
And brought me back to happier times

Over the river and through the woods
To grandmother's house we'd go
My dad knew the way in his new Chevrolet
To the sweetest love I know...
Oh, over the river and through the woods
How much longer now?
To the love that waits there, thick in the air
It's all at Grandma's house

Nail-holes where the pictures hung
The shelves and windows bare
The back-porch swing's been taken down
Oh, the summers I spent there
We sweep each upstairs bedroom
One last time and shut the door
As a memory slipped through cracks in floorboards
Gone forevermore
And all too soon, the dusk descends
On this last day we'll ever spend

Over the river and through the woods
To grandmother's house we'd go
My dad knew the way in his new Chevrolet
To the sweetest love I know...
Oh, over the river and through the woods
How much longer now?
To the love that waits there, thick in the air
It's all at Grandma's house

They say at least she chose to go
And she'll be better there, but I know
She did it just to ease our minds
She says 'I'm tired, and I'm done
At night I pray the angels come'
Me, I confess, I pray they take their sweet old time...

Well, the last car pulls out from the drive
Just my sister and I remain
And a family comes tomorrow
To start history here again
She lays the key beneath the mat
And says 'I think we have it all'
I say 'Except for the love of fifty years
That seeped into these walls'
And, oh, how blessed their lives will be
In a house that holds such memories...

Over the river and through the woods
To grandmother's house we'd go
My dad knew the way in his new Chevrolet
To the sweetest love I know...
Oh, over the river and through the woods
How much longer now?
To the love that waits there, thick in the air
It was all at Grandma's house