Bill Anderson: I Dreamed About Mama Last Night

(Fred Rose)

I've just been to heaven with someone so true
I dreamed about mama last night
She read me her Bible like she used to do
I dreamed about mama last night.

Mama used to never go to sleep at night
Until all of us were in bed
On party nights till we come home
She often sat up and read.

We little thought about it then
For we were young and gay
Just how much mama worried when
Children were away.

We only knew that she never slept
When we were out at night
That she waited just to know that we
Were all gonna come home alright.

Why sometimes we'd stayed away
Till one or two or three
And I used to think that mama could hear
The turning of the key.

For we'd step inside and she'd cal
And we'd reply
But we were all too young back then
To understand just why.

But up until the last one had returned
Mama always kept a light
She couldn't go to sleep until
She kissed us all goodnight.

I think mama just had to know that we were safe
Before she went to rest
She seemed to fear that the world might harm
The ones that she loved the best.

One time she told me when you're grown
To women and to men
I'll sleep the whole night through
I bet I'll be different then.

And so it seemed that night and day
We knew a mother's care
Then always when we got back home
We'd find her waiting there.

And then came the night that we
Were called together round her bed
The children're all with you now
The kindly doctor said.

And in her eyes there gleamed again
That old time tender light
That told that she's just been waitin'
To know that we were all alright.

She smiled that old familiar smile
And prayed to God to keep
Her children safe from harm throughout the years
Then mama went to sleep.

My dream is a treasure that I'll always keep
I dreamed about mama last night...