What she had to

I was three years old
Sittin' in a seat
Of a Greyhound bus
My brother and me
Mama's tears fallin' like a Carolina rain
Cause she pulled out a gun the night before
Said, "He ain't gonna drink and hit me no more"
She pulled the trigger on my father in a moment's rage
Thank God
That gun wasn't loaded
Didn't know where to go
Or how she'd survive
Didn't care, anywhere
But there that night
She held her babies tight
And we rolled through the cold
Of the midnight blue
She was scared
She was broke
But all she knew was
She was gonna do
What she had to
She got her a job
And a trailer out west
It wasn't much
But she was doin' her best
Puttin' food on the table for her family
But then one day
I came home from school
My mama was cryin'
Alone in her room
She said, "I lost my job
And we're gonna lose the trailer too"
And she got that Volkswagen loaded
Didn't know where to go
Or how she'd survive
Didn't care, anywhere
But there that night
She held her babies tight
And we rolled through the cold
Of the midnight blue
She was scared
She was broke
But all she knew was
She was gonna do
What she had to
Whenever things
Go wrong in my life
I just think of her
And what it took that night
To get on that bus in the Carolina rain
Didn't know where to go
Or how she'd survive
Didn't care, anywhere
But there that night
She held her babies tight
And we rolled through the cold
Of the midnight blue
She was scared
She was broke
But all she knew was
She was gonna do
What she had to
What she had to
What she had to