{"id":7203,"date":"2016-08-17T06:17:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/?p=7203"},"modified":"2025-07-13T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T15:13:11","slug":"the-last-of-lauras-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/?p=7203","title":{"rendered":"The Last Of Laura&#8217;s Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"171\" src=\"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/last_0f_lauras_children-1024x171.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7121\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/last_0f_lauras_children-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/last_0f_lauras_children-300x50.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/last_0f_lauras_children-768x128.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/last_0f_lauras_children.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Last-of-Lauras-Childre.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/distrokid.com\/hyperfollow\/rickwesthorpe\/the-mick--mary-ep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"202\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/group.jpg\" alt=\"Buy \/ Stream\" class=\"wp-image-7591\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The first verses and chorus of this song were written at the time of my father&#8217;s death, some of it as I sat by his bedside, some as I walked beside the River Usk in Brecon a few hours later. (If you are interested you can read my version of those events <a title=\"Mick Westhorpe (Gerald Edward) \u2013 27th November 1930 \u2013 11th April 2016\" href=\"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/?p=735\">here<\/a>.) The people named are his brother Don, sister&#8217;s Joyce, Joan, Hilda and May, mother Laura, father Charles, and wife Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rest of the song followed quite quickly, apart from the usual tweaks and alterations that happened during the recording, a few months later. As well as the sadness of the death and its impact on me, I wanted to capture the joy of nostalgia &#8211; stories and memories of his life, both his own early memories, and some of my later ones. The river Nene runs through Wisbech, where Dad lived for almost 80 years. As a child he lived right on the riverbank but the river featured throughout his whole life and was the obvious place for his ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Writing songs is clearly how I deal with things &#8211; I wrote two when my mum died \u2026 &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/?p=7058\" title=\"Before Time\">Do you still walk?&#8217; and &#8216;Before time<\/a>&#8216;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A child of Wisbech in the war<br>Stories of the old town and how it was before<br>Name and places, and people that I wish I&#8217;d known<br>Your brother Don, your sisters, Joyce and Joan<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wheel the barrow to the factory gate<br>Charlie Westhorpe&#8217;s working late<br>It&#8217;s strawberry season, hammer down the iron bands<br>Barrels made with craftsmans eye, your father&#8217;s strong hands<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But time flows faster than the River Nene<br>To wash away the past and all the things that you have seen<br>And after Hilda, after May<br>The last of Laura&#8217;s children died today<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You were a genius with a piece of wood<br>Take it, shape it, make it into something good<br>A shelf, a table<br>Or just something to hold something while you were making something else<br>You were always making something<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was the best years of your life<br>I&#8217;m talking, of course, about Mary, your beloved wife<br>I see the two of you, walking arm in arm<br>Singing an old song, through the cobbled streets of Bergen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But time flows faster than the River Nene<br>Mary too, has packed her bags and gone sailing down the stream<br>And now, after Hilda, after May<br>The last of Laura&#8217;s children died today<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I thank you for the father you have been<br>I hold the hand of the father, and the friend that you have been<br>Lying here so quietly, somewhere in between<br>Like the turning of the tide on the River Nene<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suddenly here we are at journey&#8217;s end<br>I feel as if my heart will break and never mend<br>You said you saw her<br>You said that once again she was by your side<br>I think I knew then that she would keep you safe<br>And for a man who couldn&#8217;t swim, very soon, you&#8217;d be swimming with the tide<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And does it all come back to the River Nene<br>Running through the town and through the man that you have been<br>And now after Hilda, and now after May<br>The last of Laura&#8217;s children has died today<br>Gerald Edward Westhorpe, better known as Mick<br>Has gone on his way<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first verses and chorus of this song were written at the time of my father&#8217;s death, some of it as I sat by his bedside, some as I walked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"rishi__cb_customizer_meta":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7203"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7600,"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203\/revisions\/7600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westsongs.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}