The Coalminer's Widow

The coalminer's widow Joan is getting on in years Though she's not one to use dyes to hide her gray She still pushes her shopping trolley to and from the general store And I see her often though not every day. The coalminer's widow now lives on her own In her two bedroom home halfway up hight street hill Perhaps the oldest person on her street But there is lots of living in her still. Her son and daughter in distant cities live And they visit her once every two years for brief stay And her adult grandchildren she seldom ever sees From where she lives they live long miles away. Her husband died when he was fifty two From double pneumonia from working in damp and cold The miner's lot is not an easy life And few of them ever live to be old. But for the miner's widow you ought not feel sorry For she always seems as happy as can be And she always has a big smile on her face And on her do not waste your sympathy. At the senior citizens club she dance and sing And she is one who gives the lie to age She twists and jives and dances around the floor And people far younger than her upstage. An aged woman with gaps in her teeth And she doesn't use hair dyes to hide her gray But the miner's widow she feels young at heart And I see her often though not every day.