Mama's Day
By: Laurie Ragan Jenkins

This is for the God fearing woman
My Father in Heaven blessed me with
Whom her children called mama
Being from the south she's mama to me
Now that I can see her through grown-up eyes
The blinders removed for being perfect
I long to talk of her story just to read myself
I'll share with the world, but it's more for my joy
Raised in an orphanage from five years up
Life was never easy for this beautiful little girl
I thank the good Lord she was always took to church
For she was the one introduced her kids to God
Married to a poor man by the age of sixteen
Age of twenty-three saw her with four kids
Never ever having just enough of anything
She still loved her kids with her great big heart
Her only little boy the youngest of the four
Born in 1962, with what is called down's syndrome
Some said to her to put him somewhere far, far, away
Not my little mama she cared for her little boy anyway
When he was not in the hospital
From complications with his heart
He happily played at home with his three big sisters
She lost this most precious little fellow
At the tender age of three
A huge part of her was buried with him
Underneath a beautiful magnolia tree
Although she tried so hard not to show us girls
Her heart was breaking forever more
I understand now through my grown-up eyes
How losing a child devastated all our lives
She was a God fearing woman always praying for her girls
It was with her many prayers that I've come this far
Gone home to God some four long years now
I still miss her smiling eyes
Buried beneath that magnolia tree
Right beside her darling son
Resting at home in Heaven
With him tucked in her arms