I sit here wondering what your life must have been like?
As I try to piece it together with fragments that I have found.
Did you find life hard, did you find life a pleasure?
Were your children a blessing or curse?
Ah the questions I should have asked.

Did your father speak with a brogue?
Did your mother fix wonderful food?
Did your uncles toss you on their knees?
Did your aunts have tea with you?
Did you travel or did you stay?
Ah the question I should have asked.

What was your childhood like?
Did you learn to read? Did you learn to write?
Did you go to Church?
Did you learn to cook?
Did you learn to fish?
Did you ride in a wagon to a new found home?
Or was it a ship that brought you here?
Ah the questions I should have asked.

What were my parents like as children?
Were they serious? Were they clowns?
Were they your pride and joy?
Ah the questions I should have asked.

As I sit here and fill in the past,
My life I must try to encompass,
But there will be things I leave out
There will be things that slip my mind.
So Ask the questions now while my
Memories are fresh and my life is moving along.
Don’t wait for another day.
Do not delay or you’ll look for answers,
That will be shadows of the past
Ah the questions I should have asked.

Julia K. Hogston
July 24, 2003