The Ballad of Rose Mae

(Music plays) (Music plays) (Non verbal singing) We welcome you today to this funeral for Rose Mae.

Too young, too sweet, too pure.

Gone too soon.

if you have something to say, come and stand here in my place.

Give her honor.

Give her grace.

May God smile upon her face.

Stand up here today.

Weeping for Rose Mae.

I watched her tired eyes closed under the pale half moon.

As infection overtook.

I felt the lives.

It shook.

The dead keep piling up.

We're not amused.

I heard a word from the birds.

Something about the gardener.

Scandalous.

Maybe I shouldn't say.

Comes through his mind.

He lives in a different time.

He's not the same since he went away.

Look at him whisper.

He knows we talk.

Her father a fool.

He had false naivete.

Brought him here, sad to say, but it's clear he trusted the man with his rose.

Now it's gardens overgrown.

I hear what they say.

They can talk every day.

Nothing I do could ever change their minds.

Rose Mae was like my own.

And none of us will know the reason why this little girl has died.

She was once a light inside our eyes.

Like the brightest sun ray.

Plagued with dread and doubt.

This town will be the same.

A gun shell of a man.

But no more, a killer I seen death first hand.

And still I couldn't save her.

I saw the Luna walking with her that afternoon.

No sign or seen of coughing.

And yet she died so soon.

I hear the townsmen talking.

It can all be in my head.

I went to war for all I cast aside instead.

Such a sorry man.

Giving a bad hand, two dead in a decade.

How about that?

God in heaven, save him.

First one was a boy.

Second one's a...shhh!

That tricky trap surely set her trap.

I lost my wife three years ago.

The pain still sits inside my bones.

My rose was my redeeming love.

Now she sits with my wife above.

Leaving me with pain I can't atone.

I hear the whispers I know you talk.

Shame on you for your thoughts.

My wife and I will pull through.

But we've had enough of you.

No more stares, no more fake smiles.

Leave us to reconcile.

The girl was killed.

You can't deny.

To say she was sick would be a lie.

Father protects his family.

That's what he does.

Take it from me.

You're and kind and smart and good.

Stuck inside her child.

He bought that tramp at the tavern in town.

She loved him with his first wife around.

God, I never thought I'd say good bye.

You're unkind and smart and good.

Stuck inside.

Her childhood.

A father protects his family.

That's what he does.

Take it from me.

(multiple voices singing) Oh, God.

I never thought I'd say goodbye.

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

I was 19 when I saw you.

I fell in love with a stranger.

I watched you as you found the one built a life.

I should have run away.

But I stayed.

Because love must find your way.

The moment she was gone, I felt I finally won.

I had you in my grasp I could comfort you at last the day spent in the sun.

You were the only one I could see.

A lifetime in your shadow I was happy living in the middle.

But then there was a change.

Your love was for Rose Mae.

I was 26 when I saw her.

That was the day I loathed a stranger.

I watched her as she mourned the one who gave her life.

So I was shunned away.

Yet I stay.

Cause love must find a way.

As Rose Mae grew mocking me with those eyes of blue the eyes that her mother left, still haunting me with her every breath.

The hate consumed me like a storm.

My rose was no flower.

But I thought I could love her.

I would try all my new ways.

She had to die.

Love must find a way.

Yes, love must find a way.

(soft music plays) You have always been a part of me.

Your rosy life.

has changed the way I see.

Gardens have grown.

Now I feel less alone.

Knowing you alone is beautiful.

When the fading sound gets slow.

Hold on to something you know no matter where you are.

Whether near or far, I'll be.

When your sleepy eyes are closed I will protect my fragile rose.

Do not fright or fear your guardian angel's here.

Oh, I'm hear.