Me Owd Aunt Bid

She was just the lady who looked after me when I came home from school,
But I had to call her auntie for respect was then the rule,
A Dublin woman so she was and fiercely proud she of it,
She loved everybody’s children but never would admit,

That she was sad because she had no children of her own,
Her husband went to war you see and never made it home,
“Have you done your homework boy? She’d ask with a face so stern,
“If you’re ever to amount to much you’ve got an awful lot to learn,”

I couldn’t kid owd aunty Bid for she could read my mind,
God help me if I lied to her I’d get a sore behind,
So I polished off my homework as quickly as I could,
Then off to play off to play with the other kids with a warning to be good.

She used to say the strangest things if I did any wrong,
Like: “You’ll regret that to yer dying day, If I let you live that long.”
“Turn that blasted racket down” she shouted up the stairs,
“If I have to come up after you, you’d better say yer prayers!”

I still don’t know what a spalpeen is though she often called me one,
And I always thought it was all one word: “Away- wit-ye- be-gone! “
Though her speech often bemused me I knew just what she meant,
Stay on the straight and narrow boy or I’ll make you repent!

“Get out of me way and go and play” she often scolded me,
“But it’s raining cats and dogs” I said and I haven’t had me tea,
“You’ve never been to Dublin if you call that piddle rain,
It’s only ‘liquid sunshine’ be off and don’t complain.

“I could hear less of that more often” she said of Rock and Roll,
“It’ll never come to anything they’ll end up on the dole,
And who’s that caterwauling? Does he think that he can sing?”
“They call him Elvis Pressley aunt and some call him the king.”

“I’ve never heard the like of it” owd aunt bid would rave,
“That poor old Mister Miller must be turning in his grave!
What’s wrong with Benny Goodman and good old Henry Hall?
Why you’d want to listen to that noise I’ve no idea at all”

Yes she was old fashioned but she loved me like a son,
With all her quirky sayings she really was great fun,
As a kid she seemed so strict to me but her heart was full of love,
And I was away on that fateful day when she went up above.
 
I was in the army then in far flung Borneo,
Up country on the border when I got to know,
Of how she’d leapt into the road to push a child aside,
The motor car hit her instead and that’s how Biddy died.

Looking out for other’s children and in my dreams I heard her say,
“Ah t’well it needed doing boy, don’t fuss now, I’m okay,”
Then I swear I heard her chuckling and she gave a gentle cuss,
“It could have been much worse” she laughed “sure it might have been a bus.”

I’ve tried to teach my children the things I learned from her,
To look out for one another and always show you care,
For in my heart and in my mind there isn’t any doubt,
We should try to put more into life than ever we take out.


Thanks Aunty Bid.
RIP Biddy Murphy 1902-1963