Mama Bendel

I still remember the old days
When I was young and in school
My mind will wander to when I was so confused
And I was never sure of whom I was
I was living far away from home
I missed my family and my friends
But out of the gloom there was a woman
Who kept us laughing into the deeps of the night
And we called her Mama Bendel
To her we went for our meals
She made amala the way I liked it
Mama Bendel — She was always there
She put the shine in my dull days
She knew how to make a stone laugh
She knew how to lift my dark clouds away
She told me stories of how she grew up
As a young girl in a village far away
She painted a world of happiness
And taught me the things mother forgot to teach
She talked about love and pain
And what you must do to keep your head
Up above the storms of life
She was Mama Bendel
She would sing and dance
To soothe my young soul
Mama Bendel — Honest and true
She was the queen in my little world
Now Mama Bendel is gone away
She died in her sleep a few years ago
They said just before she left
She gave everyone a smile and said
«I'll be seeing you very soon»