Mary Huddleston

They called her Mary Huddleston
She took a one-way trip
All the way down to the Cape
On a Union Castle ship
Mary looked for a brand new life
Which finally she found
Some way into the Hinterland
On a patch of broken ground

The day she sailed from Liverpool
She cried into the rain
She knew that she would never see
Her family again
But a new world waited out across 2000 ocean leagues
A world of new horizons
Of adventures and intrigues

Through hot and dusty summers
And the freezin' winter wind
When every bluster made her feel
Her face was being skinned
When fever struck and crops had failed
And famine had arrived
Still Mary raised a family
And somehow she survived

They moved her from that patch of land
To leave her dispossessed
She found another just the same
A few miles to the west
Whatever they could throw at her
She took it on the chin
She was unbowed and yes, was proud
She'd never given in

The ending came, and as you'd guess
She never made the trip
Back to the port of Liverpool
On a Union Castle ship
There was a phone call, just the one
When a frail voice cracked through
My grandma, in her 80s then
Said, "Mary, is that you?"

I guess it's always been the same
And evermore will be
The magic of the one-way trip
That calls humanity
And should you ever raise your eyes
To the heavens and to Mars
You might see Mary Huddleston
Out there amongst the stars