Mama held me and told me it’d be alright
When the nightmares would prolong.
Then she scratched my back and started to hum,
Singing our special bedtime song.
She sang the words I’d heard before,
The words that I still know.
She started out, “Goodnight sweetheart,
Well it’s time to go.”
Mama tucked me in and turned out the light.
Her eyes were still aglow.
As she sang, “I hate to leave you,
But I really must go.”
Mama kissed my scratches and held me tight,
How was I to know?
The trueness in the words she sang,
When it was time to go.
My daddy came in early one morn,
Head down, something was wrong.
The night before, I had sang to myself,
Singing our special bedtime song.
Daddy took my hand, and told me, “Dear,
Your mother had to go.
You don’t have to go to school today.”
I could see his eyes overflow.
I sang the words she once sang to me,
Starting out so slow,
After daddy left the room, I sang,
“Well it’s time to go.”
I remember the way that she’d look at me,
And that she loved me so.
It was true, when she said, “I hate to leave you,
But I really must go.”
I didn’t cry at all the next few days,
Not because I was strong,
But because I was still waiting for her
To sing our special bedtime song.
It’s been years, and I’ve shed my share of tears,
Since that day so long ago.
But still some nights when I can’t sleep, I hear,
“Goodnight sweetheart, well it’s time to go.”