TWO YELLOW LILIES Gram and Gramp’s Farewell [Verse 1] After Gramma Dot’s last goodbye, We gathered by the riverside. More than a hundred family and friends, Each holding flowers in their hands. They crowded on that Yankeetown dock, Quiet beneath the afternoon sun. Then with the outgoing river tide, They saw our little boat arrive. [Verse 2] My brother, my cousin, and I came through, Coasting where the dark tide drew. Gram was with us, Gramp was too— Apart for years, now side by side. Gramp had left this world in pain Many troubled years before. His ashes waited all that time; No one knew what they were waiting for. [Pre-Chorus] We passed the dock and opened our hands, Their ashes met above the water. Then every flower from the service Came raining down together. [Chorus] Two yellow lilies stayed behind While all the others rode the tide. Hundreds of flowers followed our boat, But those two never left her side. Round and round before the dock, Turning tightly into one— Gramma Dot’s favorite Easter lilies Dancing in the afternoon sun. [Verse 3] The flowers traveled at our speed, A garden moving with the stream. Roses, daisies, every color Drifting onward like a dream. But those two lilies held their place While more than a hundred people stared. No rope beneath them, no hidden hand— Just Gram and Gramp still circling there. [Chorus] Two yellow lilies stayed behind While all the others rode the tide. Hundreds of flowers followed our boat, But those two never left her side. Round and round before the dock, Turning tightly into one— Gramma Dot’s favorite Easter lilies Dancing in the afternoon sun. [Bridge] The morning that she left this world, Wintergreen filled up the room. Gramp had worn that scent for years; We knew who had come for whom. Now their ashes met upon The Withlacoochee’s rolling foam. Maybe he had come to get her. Maybe she had led him home. Call it current. Call it chance. Call it something still unknown. But a hundred people watched those lilies Turn together all alone. [Final Chorus] Two yellow lilies stayed behind As Gram and Gramp joined with the tide. Every other flower followed, But those two danced there side by side. Round and round before the dock, Like two hands that would not part— Her favorite flowers wrote their farewell On every witness’s heart. Two yellow lilies stayed behind, Then disappeared from view. And no one standing on that dock Could say they hadn’t seen it too. [Outro] The boat moved on. The tide rolled home. The river carried them away. But two yellow Easter lilies Stopped to dance Before they said goodbye that day.
