Lord, I Want To Thank You

Lord, I Want to Thank you By Franklin Price 02/06/2022 Lord, I want to thank You for guiding me through life, For caring friends and family, most of all, a loving wife You brought the two of us together, when we thought that all was lost What we'd gone through to get there was more than worth the time and cost My childhood was a stable place. I was the youngest of the lot. My parents came from small farms, where people pissed into a pot, Drew water from an open well, stored the cold food in the creek, Went to church on every Sunday, took a bath, one time a week We never had much extra. A roof was always overhead. Food was always on the table. We always slept upon a bed Went to church on every Sunday and again on Wednesday night Never wanted for essentials, God was good, all things were right Barbara came from like beginnings, at least on her mother's side From low country Carolina where God and country do abide Her father was from Illinois, the best baker ever seen When they met on Paris Island. He was a USA Marine. Barbara was the oldest. Then her brother came to be Her father could not settle down, drug them everywhere to see. He cheated on their mother, every time that he was able. Her mother was responsible to put the food upon the table Sometimes Barb had many things, but many times she went without Her home was South Carolina, of that, there never was a doubt Her parents finally got divorced. Her mother worked at KSC. Barb was barely just a teen, losing all stability. Began mixing with the wrong crowd. Then a baby came along. She got married for the first time, not the way to right the wrong. Randi did not live a year, SIDS death was soon the thief Her husband went to Vietnam. She got divorced to find relief. My memory is cloudy, about the next man she would wed How she came to meet him and all the things they did and said The importance, in that marriage, is that Dani came along. The year was nineteen sixty-eight, in sixty-nine I sang the song. I've told that tale and others, in poems I've written since Barb passed I was the third one whom she married. I'm so glad I was her last. Our half a century together, was the happiest; the best. Dani, our loving daughter, was with me when Barb went to rest. So God I want to thank You, for the race, so far, I've run How You paved our way to Heaven with Your one and only Son For giving me a wife and daughter on whom I could depend Please God just keep on guiding, until my life comes to an end. Then take me up to Heaven where I'll be with Barb again. Love You, because You took her, to relieve her of her pain. If I had it to do over, I would not change a single part. You may have her up in heaven but she's still within my heart.