We Came Here Too Late    

Lyrics: Al Simmons    Music: Keri Latimer   

I was directing a variety show in Dawson City, Yukon a few years ago.  Deirdre Mulcahy, a server in one of the local restaurants, was going to be part of the show.  She told me about a customer she served whose story had a profound effect on her.  I was so moved by the story that I asked if I could write a song about it.  Deirdre sang this song in the show.   Keri Latimer composed the melody and added her voice to my version.

The call of the wild, Klondike Kate, Dangerous Dan remember him?

The history of the indigenous kin of a man they called Skookum Jim.

Sometimes the things that we remembered would amount to naught.

The most important things it seemed were the those that we forgot.

She’d been a Yukoner for decades it seems

And the first to admit that she’s jaded.

She got something in common with boarded up buildings,

She shows a false front and she’s faded,

Waiting on tables in a ghost tourist town,

One hour till closing, she’s counting them down.

Summer days up in Dawson, they’re warm and they’re long,

But the tips are alright if she puts on the charm.

She saved all her life for this journey.

The years fell like hour-glass sand.

Fate can be cruel if we learn he

Has dealt us an unforeseen hand.

She noticed him slide in the booth by the window,

Elderly gentleman, handsome, roughhewn.

He spoke as he glanced towards the women’s room door,

“My wife will be joining me soon.”

She told him the special and gave him two menus.

She said she’d be back with some water.

He barely glanced, he just nodded his head.

Something was troubling this gentle globetrotter.

When she returned he was gazing away,

Unaware of all the dining room clatter.

With tears in his eyes he looked up to see

Her face ask him wordlessly, “What is the matter?”

His voice shook with emotion, “We came here too late.”

He wiped at his eyes with a trembling hand.

She reassured him, “We’re open till eight.”

“No,” he explained, “You don’t understand.”

We saved all our lives for this journey.

The years fell like hour-glass sand.

Fate can be cruel if we learn he

Dealt us an unforeseen hand.           

           

My wife and I met a half century ago,

We were young, she was shy, I was nervous.

We’d few things in common but one was our love

Of the poems of your Robert Service.

We talked and we dreamed of the great northern lights,

The old gold rush days when the sourdoughs came,

The hard times, the heartbreaks, the long winter nights,

They struggled and managed to each stake their claim.

The gold rush was done before most folks arrived.

Like those late comers we’d somehow survived.

I’ve earned very little, I’ve lost quite a lot.

I’ve learned to be grateful for all that I’ve got.

We saved all our lives for this journey.

The years fell like hour-glass sand,

But fate can be cruel if we learn he

Dealt us an unforeseen hand.

Now her mind is slowly fading,

She won't know the time or the place,

And her words come out all tangled,   

Still she smiles when she sees my face.

Where once we were young, with no warning we’re old,

But the love that we knew was cast in pure gold.

To see her this way I’m resigned to our fate,

But still I keep thinking… we came here too late.

NOTE:  This song is based on a true story told to me by Deirdre Mulcahy, who was a waitress in a restaurant in Dawson City Yukon.