Lyric discussion by GorillaSTL 

Cover art for The Surgeon's House lyrics by Burning Airlines

Where did my father find this photograph? What happened to the person that I knew, the spite, the narrowed eyes? She was beautiful in this picture. So what happened? How did she go from this beauty to such a cold angry person? There used to be a whole person here, the proof is in the pictures, prehistory tacked up in Polaroid. I think this song is about who a person was, and how we remember that person. Something happened to this woman, she became embittered, unhappy, but there was a time when she wasn't, when she was beautiful. Whoever she was, that happy beautiful person did not survive. I think this song is also tipping it's hat at a family surviving a death of someone who through the course of dyeing was bitter and hateful, who required having to "make the best of it".