Charlie's Name

I was walking around the hospital
Waiting for my husband to die

He'd been in and out
And in and out
For six months
And this was the time
He was finally going to go

I didn't know that at the time
But maybe a part of me knew

I was tired
I wasn't hungry
I was frustrated
And all the doctors
Were starting to blend together

My husband was going to die
And I wondered which kid I was going to have to call first

My oldest would cry the most
My youngest would yell at me for not ordering her to come home
And my middle one would say good riddance

I was not looking forward to the calls

My three kids had three different dads
And they weren't all good

But I had one husband
And he was pretty fantastic

I made the mistake of thinking
All good guys could be good fathers

When I died twenty years later
That was still the mistake
I would put down as being
Number One
In the big book of my life

Having kids with my husband

Want a confession?

If I'd had to choose
Between marrying my husband
And not having my kids

Or finding another guy
To have my kids with

I'd have chosen my husband

That isn't a popular thing to say
But...

Maybe that's because most women
Don't have the right husband

When I died my kids
Were sitting in the hospital cafeteria
Wishing it would just happen already
So they could go home

I was in and out
And in and out too

If my husband had been alive
He would have been right there with me
Just like I was with him

My kids were my kids
But my husband?

He was my partner

After he died
I used to say
He was the cane
I never knew I used

I found it hard to walk
To even stand upright
Without him

As I wandered around the hospital
I must have gotten lost in the maternity wing
Because I walked by a room
With a woman holding a baby

I stopped--I didn't mean to, but I did
And I just looked at her

She looked at me
And smiled

She must have noticed
That I'd been crying

'Come on in,' she said, 'My husband went home to watch the game.'

I went and sat by her bed
And looked at her baby

'He's beautiful,' I said

And she said--'Thank you'

She asked me what I was doing in maternity wing
And I told her about my husband
On the other side of the hospital

She gave me her sympathies
And I waved them away

Termites, in-laws, and sympathies are all in the same
Once they're in
You can't get rid of them

I asked her what she named the baby
And she said she hadn't decided yet
And did I know of any good names

On the other side of the hospital
My husband had just taken his last breath
And the doctors were wondering
Where I was

I looked at the baby
And he smiled at me


I remember the first time my husband introduced himself to me
I remember exactly what I thought, too

'Charlie,' I said, 'Charlie's a good name'

And it is

Don't you think?