It was a phone call in the night-
The kind you hear before it rings
It was a phone call in the night
When you can hear an angel's wings
When you know before you answer
That it's someone's time to die
And when I learned that it was you
And as I stood there I could feel you passing by-
There was no time to say goodbye

There was no time to say goodbye;
No time to thank you for the years
There was no time to say goodbye-
A lamp gone out, light disappears
And as I stood there in the darkness
There were more tears than I could cry
For you were here so totally
It seemed impossible that you could ever die-
There was no time to say goodbye

There are pictures in a box
In a room in a house long miles from here
There are old seashells and rocks;
Faded labels from our days of German beer
There are postcards from Montana;
Faded drawings and some drums
And I can't recall the rest-
Oh, God, you're never really ready when it comes
There was no time to say goodbye-
I was delayed in getting home
There was a missed connecting flight
And when I got here you were gone
Someone handed me some coffee;
A tiny sandwich made on rye
I put it down. I stood there looking
At your picture on the mantel, wondering why
There was no time to say goodbye
No time to thank you for the years