Story Behind The Song
Having worked for nearly 20 years in positions involving regulation of health care facilities, I spent a great deal of time in nursing homes, and have observed the best and the worst of conditions in them. However, nearly all of them had one thing in common, which I have made the subject of this song - the feeling of loneliness and despair endured by so many facing their final days.
Song Description
This song expresses the loneliness, fear, and despair of an elderly lady confined to a wheel chair in a nursing home. As she experiences her body failing her and the end of her life approaching, her only prayer is for someone to take her home.
| Song Length |
5:06 |
Genre |
Folk - General, Folk - Contemporary |
| Tempo |
Very Slow (Under 70) |
Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
| Mood |
Poignant, Heartbreaking |
Subject |
Sadness, Loneliness |
| Language |
English |
Era |
2000 and later |
Lyrics
Can Anybody Hear Me
Verse 1
She sits there in the hallway in a row of wheeled chairs,
Now just one of many who are slowly dying there.
She wonders what she's doing here, her life went by so fast.
Her memories are all she has to resurrect the past.
She thinks about her younger days, of how she had such fun
Playing with her siblings, all of them now gone.
Those days she could do anything, but now she feels so weak.
Her body now is failing her, and she can hardly speak.
Chorus
Can anybody hear me?
Does anybody see me?
The days go by so slowly and I feel so all alone.
I used to be so carefree, now those days are all behind me.
Won't somebody please come take me home?
Verse 2
The mirror on the wall reflects the sadness in her face.
She wonders how it happened that she wound up in this place.
As she thinks about that fateful day, her eyes well up in tears,
She had to leave the home she lived in for so many years.
Her kids have all grown up now and they've moved so far away.
It's hard for them to come and see her, even for a day.
The people here are strangers, where are all her friends?
She never could imagine that this is how it ends.
Repeat Chorus
Can anybody hear me?
Does anybody see me?
The days go by so slowly and I feel so all alone.
I used to be so carefree, now those days are all behind me.
Won't somebody please come take me home?
Bridge
The husband I depended on for over sixty years
Has gone before me and he can no longer calm my fears.
The loving care I gave him 'till Our Savior set him free,
The things I used to do for him, they now must do for me.
Verse 3
She prays "Dear Lord, please strengthen me, if you really care.
Save me from this drowning in an ocean of despair.
I don't know if I can live like this for another day,
The aching in my body and my soul won't go away."
Repeat Chorus
Can anybody hear me?
Does anybody see me?
The days go by so slowly and I feel so all alone.
I used to be so carefree, now those days are all behind me.
Won't somebody please come take me home?
I pray, somebody please come take me home.
Sweet Jesus, won't you please come take me home?
Can anybody hear me?
Copyright © July, 2017 Thomas E. McCue All Rights Reserved