In Memory of Robert H. Williams…from Okie

“That Red-headed Kid”

A young boy paralyzed with fear, where has my father gone?

Why is mother crying now and what is going on?

Why must I go away alone? I do not understand.

“At the tender age of nine, my son, you must be a man.”

So off he went, to Uncle’s farm and worked out in the field,

with a yearning ache of emptiness that years would never heal.

He needed to be with family and to cry his tears and grieve,

The seed of hurt was planted then and it would never leave.

Work was the salve that eased the pain for ‘that red-headed kid,’

in high school he was voted ‘Best’ at most everything he did.

His brother, Dale, became his friend and the bond between them grew,

but then one unsuspecting day, his brother left him too.

Love came to him deep and true and she did make him feel,

that family and belonging could maybe still be real.

But in the midst of love and bliss, the Lord called her one day.

The loss was more than he could take, but he took it anyway.

With four young ones to care for, there wasn’t time to cry,

he had responsibility and somehow they’d get by.

“The proof is in the pudding,” or that’s what they say,

Just look at his five kids right now, the way they live today.

His grief then turned to passion and work became his life,

he slowly built his business and took another wife.

But relationships were difficult and wives would come and go,

None would ever understand, none would ever know.

The red hair turned to silver, the business turned to gold,

and one day that red headed-kid had somehow gotten old.

But the heart was still a loner and the hurt still hidden deep,

and no one ever realized the secret he did keep.

He never did get over the day his dad had died,

that melancholy yearning that wouldn’t let him cry.

And the shock of his brother dying before the prime of life,

then farewell to the woman who would always be his wife.

The tears were still inside him, bound and locked up tight,

beneath the cool exterior, beneath the will to fight.

So remember what he lived through, think of what he did

Before you criticize or curse ‘That old red-headed kid.’