Cudgegong River sands and water

Countless Tubnor's Mudgee reds

Local sweat and bricks and mortar

Built the walls to house the beds

So sad to see our old matron

Torn down and trucked away

For those of us who were a patron

I swear she bears our D.N.A.

Diagnosis sealed her fate

Asbestos riddled from tip to toe

"Do Not Resuscitate"

Best to let the old girl go

Spirits linger in corners

Soon they'll have nowhere to hide

In the chapel ghostly mourners

Pray to cross the great divide

I know the hospital all too well

For I was born within those walls

And I shuffled my father's cancered shell

Up and down those polished halls

Ground floor you find maternity

The ward where life begins

Upstairs lies eternity

And some say angel's wings

Seems the living and the dying

Are just a breath apart

Hear the laughter and the crying

Life must end as life must start.

- Stephen Endacott