Moving Oleta

Moving Oleta was the hardest thing he'd done

The nurses saw an old woman cryin'

But he saw the love of his life

She don't know where she is

But she knows this isn't home

Love is a hard, hard road

He met her in the summer of '37

in a brush arbor down on the Rush Creek shore

He loved her black hair and the mischief in her smile

But she won him with her eyes

All the years and children gone,

he still sees her the same

Love is a hard, hard road

He woke up each morning and drove into town

He stayed all day till her dinner came

Then he took her to a room, leaned on her wheelchair like a walker

Covered her with a quilt she'd made

Only God and a couple of nurses helped the old man shoulder the load

Love is a hard, hard road

He said "They tell me this is all that's left,

Say this hell on Earth is best,

I lost all those reasons and I still don't understand"

He cursed his body old and weak

Tears of failure burned his cheeks

He said "Oh, don't you know I prayed to die before this day"

Love is a hard, hard road

There's a shadow much darker than the valley of death

When you fear the reaper night not come today

The line 'em up in Laz-E-Boys out in the sunroom

The TV keeps the quiet away

She can't recall his name and she's the only love he's known

Love is a hard, hard road

Love is a hard, hard road

Moving Oleta was the hardest thing he'd done.