A pretty old girl in a sweet summer dress
A man clutching Irn Bru and day dreams
He caught the glimpse of a smile in her eyes
And swore he saw stardust and sunbeams

She got on the train without even a word
His heart was more or less broken,
He sat on the platform and wrote in his head
The words he wished he had spoken:

'I'll be what I can be to you,
A quiet and constant companion
I'll sail these tumultuous seas with you
And love with tempestuous abandon'

They met by pure chance at a Summer night's dance
His hair was longer and brighter
She floated around in a long purple dress
And asked to borrow his lighter

They talked for a while but she went back inside
And danced with each man that approached her
He watched on shyly too awkward to ask
And said to himself in a murmur:

'I'll be what I can be to you,
A quiet and constant companion
I'll sail these tumultuous seas with you
And love with tempestuous abandon'

One blessed night they went to a party together
- A last minute choice on her part -
He bought a litre of gin on the way
As a sure way of winning her heart

He kissed her at dawn and she wasn't surprised
The gin and the stars made her love him
'I've fancied you so long' he confessed with a smile
And said in the vanishing dim:

'I'll be what I can be to you,
A quiet and constant companion
I'll sail these tumultuous seas with you
And love with tempestuous abandon'

'And will you marry me?'
He asked with sincerity
She said no for years
'It's too soon' she feared
Til one day she got down on one knee

Months later they married in sweet summer air
He cried as she walked down the aisle
Their parents wept softly for childhoods lost
As they whispered 'I do' with a smile

The vows that they spoke to each other that day
Were written for years on their heart
They looked in each other's eyes no question there
They both knew the words to their parts:

'I'll be what I can be to you,
A quiet and constant companion
I'll sail these tumultuous seas with you
And love with tempestuous abandon'

Their lives passed by slow in an old country house
Their children grew healthy and charming
He took on ownership of an old pub
While she enjoyed vegetable farming

She died at the ripe age of seventy nine
He died of being alone
Their children knew of the words in their blood
And had them carved into their gravestone:

'I'll be what I can be to you,
A quiet and constant companion
I'll sail these tumultuous seas with you
And love with tempestuous abandon'