One

“…so, you just packed up everything and just moved ? No jobs waiting ? And you didn’t know a single person?”

The young man looked intently at the woman he had known all his life and wondered how it could be that he knew so little about her.

“Just like a pioneer woman, huh?“

Oh, don’t you remember *Sweet Besty from Pike who crossed the wide prairie with her husband Ike. ..?”

He sang and grinned at his reference to the old folk song and studied her face for any recognition that she had actually heard him speaking.


Without changing the cadence of her rocking or opening her eyes to look at him, the old lady smiled.

“Yes, we packed everything we owned, which wasn’t that much as I recall-it fit nicely in a small U-haul trailer- and we moved. It’s true we had no job prospects but I did know someone -a lady I met just once-we had exchanged phone numbers.”

She stopped rocking, opened her eyes and looked at him, her own brown eyes meeting his blue matter-a-factly and directly.

When you speak to someone, look them straight in the eye and when you shake someone’s hand, be firm in your grip. That inspires confidence.

He marveled and shook his head. So many thoughts, just like this one -things she’d told him when he was a lad seemed to pop in his brain a lot lately.

“Sweet Betsy, she continued still gazing directly into his eyes, never married that scoundrel, Ike. Well, not until much later.”

The old lady grinned and sang all ten verses including each and every chorus. Then she added a few verses of her own making just for good measure.

He used to absolutely hate it when she sang. She always changed the song around and added her own words and rhyme. Sometimes, it was hilariously funny but more often he had found it embarrassing and obnoxious.

The song he hated most of all was the morning song. He never knew the actual name of it but he remembered the words. And that was another odd thing. He found himself humming it in the shower just the other day. He not only hummed it but he sang it with his voice growing louder with each repeat just as his Mom had done so many long years ago.

Ri-se and shine and give God the glo-ry glo-ry…Ri-se and shine…

Funny, he didn't ,mind one bit her singing now. In fact, he wished she would sing more-much much more.


C copyright February, 2009 by DJL



*The tune is based on an early 19th century British song Villikins and His Dinah. It is also a variant of the Scottish melody Lord Randall.