Hymn For Georgie Radford
Sing a hymn for Georgie Radford
Who used to build ships on the Clyde
Watch them launch down the slipway
With a worker’s quiet pride.
His last job was the giant carrier,
The one they put in mothballs,
Then his dexterity slipped and
He started having sudden falls .
Early onset Dementia they said,
Words to end his working life.
They pensioned and retired him
To to care of his loving wife.
She watched him deteriorate,
Saw him endure that subtle hell
Of being confined in his mind
Trapped in his own mental cell.
She put up with the violence,
Kept it hidden and unseen,
Remembering in her love
The man that had once been.
Then came the stroke that
Left him confined to his chair,
Needing her constant presence
Needing constant help and care.
They sang a hymn for Georgie Radford
Their family workmates and friends
When his long years of torment
Finally ground on to their end.
She stood dry eyed at the funeral
Remembering with love and pride
Her once bonnie Georgie Radford
Who’d built ships on the Clyde
The children stood there with her
As the mourners paraded by
Each one muttering their words
None looking her in the eye.
She accepted their condolences
Knew she been a dutiful wife
But in her mind she felt relief
Ready for the rest of her life.
She missed her Georgie Radford
But human memory is kind
In time erasing all bad things
From a slowly healing mind.
She had grieved him in her way,
As only the truly bereaved can,
Forgetting the tortured wreck
To recall the once healthy man.
Copyright © Terry Ireland | Year Posted 2022
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