My amazing Grandmother, who is 91 years young taught me this song when I was a new Mum to sing to my own daughters. Gran was a nurse during the war. She claims that they were encouraged to light up a cigarette on entering bomb sites for “health and safety” reasons and to guard off infection! My Grandfather was a soldier and spoke rarely, if ever, of the war. Thinking about Only Fools and Horses’ Uncle Albert, I asked why this was. His reply was simple. “I lost too many mates.” I know that his brother never came home, except for a box of belongings, accompanied by a bill to his Mother, my Great Grandmother, deducting the cost of the blanket in which he was buried, from his final wages. I never even scratched the surface of the horror that lay in his memories, nor did I want to. We lost our dear Grandad nearly ten years ago, but at a good age of 82 and we are forever grateful for his bravery, his loss and the burden of his memories so that we can live a happy, hygge life.

Little brown seed

Oh little brown brother

What kind of flower will you be?

I’ll be a poppy, all bright like my Mother

Do be a poppy, like me!

What! You’re a sunflower!

How I shall miss you!

When you grow tall in the sky.

But I will send all the bees up to kiss you

Little brown brother, Goodbye!