Don't Make A Fuss

A 60th birthday song · Songbond

0:003:10

A song written from a true story

The story & lyrics

The story behind this song

She said a card would be plenty — the same thing she's said since 1984. But the family knows the dishes-doing hum, the radio low, the porch light left on, six decades of 'I'm fine, honey.'

So: balloons in the kitchen, good plates out, the bluff officially called. For the mom turning sixty who said don't make a fuss.

Lyrics

She said, "don't make a fuss."
We heard, "make it a big one."

You said a card would be plenty,
maybe dinner, nothing more —
the same thing you've been saying
since nineteen eighty-four.
But we know the dishes-doing hum,
the radio low, the porch light on.

Sixty years of "I'm fine, honey" —
tonight we're calling your bluff.

Don't make a fuss? Mama, we're making a fuss —
balloons in the kitchen, the good plates out.
Six decades of you holding us up —
tonight the whole house holds you now.
Sorry, not sorry — blow out the flame.
Sixty looks like everything you gave.

You grew up before we knew you,
a whole life before our names,
carried this family through its winters
and called it just the way.
The cinnamon smell of your December,
your laugh that ends in everyone's.

Sixty years of "don't you bother" —
we're bothering. Sit down.

And when the grandkids ask one day
why we never missed this night,
we'll say: she never made a fuss of herself.
So we did. Every time.

She said, "don't make a fuss."
Too late, Mama. Too late.

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