As a woman who's dealt with two grandmothers with Alzheimer's and see the beginnings in a parent (and won't doubt if I see it in my mother also) this song hit me.
I cried as I miss my grandmother's so very much. My paternal grandmother Grandma Catherine Igo - I remember when I was 17 and she was telling me about how her and Grandpa were going to get married - holding her skirt just like a girl... I completley get this song:
Ellsworth:
Grandma burned the biscuits
nearly took the house down with it
now she's in assisted livin
we all knew this day would come
we knew she too gone to drive
the day she parked on I-65
found her on the shoulder cryin
she didn't know where she was
it's like her mind just quit
oh but bring up grandpa
it's like someone flipped a switch
a front porch light and blue desoto
couple of straws in a coca-cola
you could see it all goin down
a handsome boy in army green
a tear on his face down on a knee
shaky voice a diamond ring
she'll put you in that town
tomorrow she won't remember
what she did today
But just ask her about Ellsworth
Kansas 1948
She takes out his medals
a cigar box of letters
sits and scatters pictures
black and whites of days gone by
we started losin her when
she lost him
but to hear her carry on
you'd swear she's seventeen again
Football games and leaves
are cracklin
walking her home in his letter jacket
you could see it all goin down
a perfect night on a front porch glider
sayin goodnight for the next three hours
her tired eyes grow wide and bright
when she talks about that town
tomorrow she won't remember
what she did today
but just ask her about Ellsworth
Kansas 1948
while the world is fading
all around her
sharin a sundae at the counter
he goin on and on about her
bet she's right there right now
tomorrow she won't remember
what she did today
but just ask her about ellsworth
Kansas 1948