Carolann Solebello Tea Without Sympathy lyrics

underneath the leaking eaves
between the sound of falling leaves
in a room by the window
Ella Mae sits all alone
recalls a time this house was home to many voices
echoed in the halls
girlish laughter climbed the walls
and the stairs in high-button shoes and petticoats
once upon a darker time
they sang the chill away in rhyme together
but she does not seem to hear the rain
she knows just how to kill the pain
she takes her tea without sympathy in books they read
behind this door her girls were sheltered from the war

and the men who had sent them for safekeeping to Ella Mae,
the local loon, whose family house had spacious rooms aplenty
then she did not need to feel alone
she made her empty house a home
she served the tea without sympathy
when long-awaited victory came
they cried as one and read the names of the men who would never claim their daughters
then one by one they left in kind and Ella Mae was left behind to these rooms
so full of empty but she still remains here holding sway
she still prepares the silver tray
she serves her tea without sympathy