It Ain't Evangeline

I could handle anything when my kids were okay,
When my son went to his dad, I had nothing to say.
He and his daddy weren’t getting along
Was my decision to let my son go so wrong?

My daughter was now college-bound;
This decision seemed to be really sound.
With her cats, she moved to a college town apartment;
Though this wasn’t really my first-choice arrangement.

I constantly worried about her safety;
College kids didn’t seem very safe to me.
She told me to stop my motherly concern;
That she needed freedom, her own lessons to learn.

To my hometown I went, not meaning to stay,
But the man I had married pushed me away.
He closed my business; gave it to the bank;
This wasn’t something for which I gave thanks.

While waiting on results of medical tests
I stayed with a friend that loved me best.
My baby sister called me about then,
Saying she needed me to be her friend.

Another little sister called to say
That she and her baby were in harm’s way.
This sister also wanted me to make peace
With our mother, the person who loved me least.

After doing what I could to get all my “kids” safe;
I attempted to hide at my mother’s place.
My best friend forever from high school
Called to tell me that was against her rules.

She insisted that I was just the one
To get a friend of hers to join her in fun.
So, she introduced me to a single man
For whom she had marriage planned.

I went with him to a hospital dance,
Neither of us expecting a hint of romance.
A man of good humor, he seemed to me;
We made plans for the next night he was free.

We went to dinner where I grilled him
On why he never married, even on a whim.
Thus began quite a series of events,
Including a few peaceful moments.

But peace wasn’t what my life held
He knew this when, for me, he fell.
Often flying high, swinging on stars
To balance the sorrows that had left scars.

We've had more drama than a soap opera brings;
We attract broken people, pets, and things.
We are now bound forever, for good and for bad,
In the most exciting ride we've ever had.