Ballad for Gem of a Woman!

Lithesome young Gem, her father’s precious lass,
born to a family of homely, motherless boys,
Endowed with dower of house and jewels
Married to the first Frankie that pled her troth

A jewel of a mother, she bred a brood of three
A son turned preacher, wed a braying mare
Barren but bold, set a handsome stud in her snare
to turn his heart to her alone and curse his Ma

Mother Gem , a thrifty, loving, housewife
Her only wealth her children and husband be,
Sold her house for daughters’ dowry and family life
But widowed in old age now a dependent be

GrandMother Gem now a hundred and six not out
But roomed and penned fed, cleaned, put out to dry
Handled by strangers, day in day out wishing to die
Away from kith and kin and home, in Commercial Care

Grand Old Gem, now a cold, corpse in purple lies
Well decked out with Cross and flowers of plenteous hue
A grand send off with copious prayers and tears
Mummy is at Peace they say and so are they now free.

If Loving Tender Care be measured by the year
Then at what age should a hale and healthy grandma
Albeit a little deaf, with slight tottering on the feet
Be put to pasture in an Old People’s home to fester?

Does Love linger or die when you reach one hundred years
Or perhaps sooner or later wherever convenience lies
Tis thought best to stuff the Old Nuisance aside for payment
In broken, solitary comfort, pained, lying in bored discontent

Does a baby thrive on milk and bread and bath alone?
Or its mother’s warm love that gushes forth from birth to death?
Yet she who loved and lived for mate and brood of three
Never did once ladle her care by hourglass of duty free.