UNKNOWN WIFE
On walking away from the Yealmpton war memorial one November, I saw an elderly lady struggling with her memories…

  Every November when she sees the petals -
Each for a life that fell in some war -
She remembers the day when the man in the peaked cap…
And why he came calling at her front door;
A young face, all grim, with a brief printed message:
"We regret to inform you of your husband's death…"
Married so briefly in a whirlwind romance
And the whispered "I do" still on her breath.
 

 

She walks from the wreaths
With the grief on her shoulders,
The loss in her heart
As she fights back the tears.
Sixty years gone
He fell in the fighting…
Still tender the love,
Still lonely the years.

 

Hear Ben Campbell sing "Unknown Wife"