The Box

On the top shelf in the closet

In the workshop where he spent his extra time

Was a dusty wooden box

That I had never noticed till that night

Then we set it on the table

And carefully we opened up the top

And stared into the memories

Daddy kept inside the box

There was a letter from Mama when she went out to Reno

To help her sister out in '62

And a flower from Hawaii where they went on vacation

It was the first time that my daddy ever flew

And the pocket knife I gave to him on Father's day

Years ago, I thought it had been lost

We all thought his heart was made of solid rock

But that was long before we found the box

I guess we always knew it

But I love you was hard for him to say

Some men show it easily

And some just never to find the way

But that night I began to see

A softer side of someone I had lost

I saw the love he kept inside the first time

When we opened up the box

There was a picture that was taken when he and mom were dating

Standing by his 1944

And a faded leather Bible he got when he was baptized

I guess no one understood him like the Lord

And the poem that he had written about his wife and children

The tender words he spoke were quite a shock

We all thought his heart was made of solid rock

But that was long before we found the box

We all thought his heart was made of solid rock

But that was long before we found the box