Tell Mother I’ll Be There… A Celebration of Mothers & Fathers

The months of May and June bring with them the celebration of Mother’s Day and then Father’s Day in the U.S.A. as well as many other countries throughout the world. As my family treated me this past Mother’s Day with helpful hands, sawing up tree branches, trimming bushes, clearing out poison ivy, and more, I thought of a Sunday in the distant past—not sure if it was Mother’s Day or not—when my husband, my children, and I went across town to Mom and Dad’s church to hear my Dad sing a solo with choir back-up harmony during the morning worship time.

My beautiful Mom and handsome Dad in the Mid-years of their Life Together (Lorena and Marion Carlisle)

The song, whose chorus begins with “Tell Mother . . . “ is a mournful entreaty to the Lord to relay a message to his own “ . . . darling Mother . . .” Its narrative is of a ‘prodigal son’ whose mother never ceased to pray for the redemption of his life and his soul. Although the story line was not true of my father’s life, the gist of what is to be told—that he will be reunited with her someday in death—is a universal hope of many.

The song I’m referencing is “Tell Mother I’ll Be There” composed by American hymn writer Charles Millard Filmore who lived from 1860 to 1952. It was written in 1898 and is in public domain in the U.S.A. I don’t need the words or music in front of me to hear my Daddy’s strong Carlisle tenor voice begin the first stanza:

When I was but a little child how well I recollect
How I would grieve my mother with my folly and neglect;
And now that she has gone to Heav’n I miss her tender care;
O Savior, tell my mother I’ll be there!

Then Daddy goes into the refrain along with his choir for the first time:

Tell mother I’ll be there, in answer to her prayer;
This message, blessèd Savior, to her bear!
Tell mother I’ll be there, Heav’n’s joys with her to share;
Yes, tell my darling mother I’ll be there.

Dad’s clear articulation of the refrain touched the hearts of many of the congregants who had lost their mothers. I think some were weeping softly as he sang. Of course, at that time, I didn’t know the grief of losing a parent. I just felt very proud of my Dad!

The second stanza speaks of a mother’s good and kind words even though the child was wayward. In stanza three the adult child who has become a ‘Prodigal Son’ leaves home accompanied by his mother’s prayers day and night for God’s protection over him.

Finally, we hear the somberness in the soloist’s voice as he sings the fourth stanza and he and the choir the final refrain:

One day a message came to me, it bade me quickly come
If I would see my mother ere the Savior took her home;
I promised her, before she died, for Heaven to prepare;
O Savior, tell my mother I’ll be there!

Tell mother I’ll be there in answer to her prayer;
This message, blessèd Savior, to her bear!
Tell mother I’ll be there, Heav’n’s joys with her to share;
Yes, tell my darling mother I’ll be there.

Here is a recording from 1908 of the first stanza, first refrain, fourth stanza, and fourth refrain by the Haydn Quartet not long after Charles Millard Filmore wrote it.