Paper Garden

I wrote this song for my beloved maternal Grandma, who was able to reach me 3,000 miles away the moment she passed away, via “telepathy”, or whatever one wishes to call it. When I was a little girl, everytime I was with her and we would see a monarch butterfly together, she would say to me “Jenny, there’a a free spirit.” When she passed, I was walking on a New York City sidewalk, and suddenly felt a pain in my chest….that night my mother informed me that my Grandma had passed away of a heart attack. With the 3 hour time difference, it turned out to be the same time I felt the pain in my chest. Exactly one week later, as I was walking along the same New York City street, this time with a girlfriend, at the same spot where I had stopped in my tracks just a week before, both me and my friend saw a monarch butterfly pass in front of us. Grandma, I said, must be sending me a message that she is now a “free spirit.” So in honor of her, and her beautiful garden that she always tended to, I wrote this song, “Paper Garden.”

PAPER GARDEN
by Jennifer Avalon & Noel Boland

I remember when Grandma died
It was raining and cold outside
I felt the pain as she closed her eyes
I said goodbye

But then that night she came to my heart
Showed me a picture of her backyard
A field of flowers surrounded by stars
A piece of Heaven painted on a card

PAPER GARDEN, NO MATTER HOW FAR I’VE SEARCHED
I’M CLOSER TO GOD IN HER GARDEN,
THEN ANYWHERE ELSE ON EARTH,
PAPER GARDEN

Magnolia’s bloom in the summer wind
Iced tea and apple cake with cinnamon
I see her calling out to me again,
“It’s not the end”

(Repeat Chorus)

Bridge:
Paper Garden, the image is clear
It didn’t fade in all these years
A sign, though my world may change
The Garden stays the same

(C):
A field of flowers where a river runs
The path to Heaven when my life is done

Tag:
Paper Garden (she’ll always be with me)
Paper Garden (I see her so clearly)