It's So Much Darker When a Light Goes Out than It Would Have Been If It Had Never Shone - Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate)

I was ten years old when my grandparents on my father’s side

Celebrated the 50th anniversary of their marriage

Our family piled into our tan '85 Aerostar

(The same one that famously died on the way to my

Younger sister’s dance recital when the entire drive shaft

Dropped out from underneath and shot

Like a torpedo down the open highway)

And made the three-hour climb to Cadillac

There was a reception held at the local V.F.W.

hall

Where my grandfather was a member

I remember meeting a lot of strangers

Whose names or faces were either immediately lost

Or never registered at all

And how they would all tell us how excited they were

To meet us

Do you know how two trees can grow together and become like one?

When my grandmother died, my grandfather died too

It took two whole years to convince his body to let him go