Ellis Island Wall

There's a wall of names on Ellis Island in New York harbor.
The first soil in America that millions touched
After watching homelands fade on disappearing horizons
Running to where a dream might come to life.

In a new land their journey spread out where freedom
Reigned supreme and where new life could begin
They never asked for handouts or recognition
They just bent their backs to making wilderness their home

The families that were built in just a century or so
Now fulfill a hundred times over the wildest thoughts back then
It’s a land strong and free and its inhabitants
Can work and wish with no boundaries or limits

And these people barely know how they got to be this way
Unless a God who has a plan to change it
And that’s how Valerie Iris got her chance….
To say hello and thank you to the names on the wall on Ellis Island

She’d heard Daddy say to Mommy in a fun and kidding way
As 5 kids asked where they were going if they got away for an hour or two
“I’m taking your Mom to New York City for breakfast.”
And Valerie Iris did not even know where that was.

But it was one of those little events in life that stays with you in a prairie town
And Valerie Iris always yearned to see New York City
And when she finally went, it completed a circle of life
As she touched the names on the waving wall at Ellis Island