The Anonymous One

In the house next to the milk bar at the corner Lives an old Greek woman she is partly blind She will be ninety one on her next birthday And for her years she has a marvellous mind. I've spoken to her at length i remember And the story of her life she did unfold She could not tell of wealth and fame and fortune But none the less her story ought be told. I first met her at the nearby Happy Cafe She asked me join her to eat cake and tea Her story she did not try to gloss over She told it in the frankest honesty. She said my life story has 'whiffs of scandal' But i will tell it to you just the same And tell it if you wish to other people But promise that you won't disclose my name. I promised her that her name i wouldn't mention When the story of her life i would relate And her name forever with me is a secret A secret that don't have a use by date. She told me she had never had a face lift And she never used hair dye to hide her gray And despite the wrinkles that the years had brought her One could tell that she looked lovely on her day. Her features not too small or not too man like And she was not big or plump in any way And though she still spoke with the slightest Grecian accent Her English good and perfectly okay. For years she has not seen her son and daughter And her grandchildren and their children she don't know, She had a lot of things in her life happen Since she left Greece sixty five years ago. Her husband a carpenter she grew to hate him Though at the start she loved him for a while She found him domineering and cruel hearted And he never cracked a joke or seemed to smile. She left him when their children were teenagers And moved in to live with another man And this relationship too soured and foundered All things in life don't always go to plan. Her son and daughter turned complete against her They hated her for walking out on dad For nineteen years she worked hard for and loved them And she was the one who was treated bad. She's been in more relationships than she care to remember And the longest only lasted a few years And all she wanted was a loving soul mate But all she knew was rejection and tears. In the cafe by the milk bar at the corner The story of her life she told to me And she told me in her life were 'whiffs of scandal' But in her story such i cannot see. An aged Grecian woman partly sighted She know the past she cannot change the past is gone And she says she holds no fears for the future She has the will to keep on keeping on. A book on her life would make a best seller Though her story not of fortune, wealth and fame And her identity with me remains a secret As she asked me not to mention her by name.