Ring on a String

They named me Hester Clarene Vickers

But they called me something else

Feels like forever that I've lived here

With your pictures on shelf

With a ring on a string

Around my neck

It's from my sweet one

He just laid down to rest

When I was 28, went on a blind date

As a favor to a friend

Man in a thunderbird, shirt sleeves rolled under

Your grandfather, you know the rest

Now I wear a ring on a string

Like all my old friends did

I think it was thought up

By one of their kids

Did I tell you that my daughter made me

This strawberry cake

And that there are some lessons you have to

Just learn by mistake

So I wear a ring on a string

Just in case

Everything I touch these days,

I seem to misplace

I lost a brother, a son and husband

To different kinds of wars

But let's talk of other things,

Like the sun bursting

Through the clouds after a storm

And my granddaughter

Painted these bluebirds

A paint by number for my shelf

They named me Hester Clarene Vickers

But they call me something else