How I Knew Her

I wish you had written me a letter
I wish you had told me before
Before your mind was too old

Cause I would have liked to have known you better
Like my daughter knows me now
I would have liked some answers

But now no one can say
What it meant to see your daddy die
Under that tractor on that black hill
How you painted your pretty face
And did your hair each day
Before you my fetched my father's pills

You could have done a few things better
You didn't have to be so strong
You might have been the answer

But now no one can say
How we would've all turned out
If you had told it like you saw it
You knew how to smile
To keep the rest from finding out
What was hanging in our closet

We still say that you're closer to Jesus
Than anyone we've ever known
Oh what a cross to carry

Cause you did everything to please us
And now you're sitting in a home
I bet you'd like some answers

But now no one can sing
The third verse of that hymn you played
On that old organ in the parlor
But if you let me I'd fill your ears
With all the love you gave
And then you'd ask me how I knew her
Oh I like to think that I did
Because each day she seems
A little closer in the mirror
But we all know you're gone
And no one really knows you now
Did you not want us to remember