Better Than Before Lyrics

DR. MADDEN
The memories are there somewhere.
Find some pictures you can share..
Keepsakes of the life that's there behind her.
Keep it light at first that's best,
Careful that she's not distressed,
When the time's right, tell the rest
Remind her.
You'll find her.

DAN
So let's start with something small,
Something personal, and pretty,
I bet you'll know these shiny things...

DIANA (spoken)
They must be tacky trinkets from, I guess, Atlantic City?

DAN
No, actually, Di, they're our wedding rings.

NATALIE (spoken)
It's going well...

DAN
Here's a flower from our wedding,
It was such a sight to see.
And the ceremony; everything w'ed hoped!

NATALIE (spoken)
Um, Dad...

DAN
Well that's how I remember it,
So that's how it'll be.

NATALIE
It was raining.
It was Portland.
You eloped.
(spoken)
I mean, Portland?!

DAN
It's an open book to write here.
It's a life we can restore.
We can get back what we had and maybe more.
Maybe get us back to better than before.

Here's the year we drove the west.
We hit the highway in the Honda,
And I took pictures everywhere we went.
We saw the painted desert, the Grand Canyon, and Aunt Rhonda.
And Nat learned what her middle finger meant.
Here's the first house that we owned on Walton Way,
We loved that place.
Then we built this one on land that we both chose.
And here's a pick of all of us with smiles on every face.
And the photoshopping hardly even shows.

DIANA
You're standing by a lake with all these ducks...
And who's this little chubby girl?

DAN
That's Natalie!

NATALIE
This sucks.

DAN
Gonna get us back to normal.
Gonna get us back to good.
Gonna get back what we had and maybe more.
Gonna get us back to good times,
And forget the things we should
Gonna get us back to better than before.
We can get things back to better than before.

NATALIE (spoken)
Alright, fine.
(sung)
Here's the headline in the paper when you freaked out at the market.
Here's the house on Walton Way after the fire.

DAN (spoken):
Natalie!

NATALIE
Here's the damage to the Honda when you showed me how to park it.

DIANA
Did we crush somebody's cat beneath the tire?

NATALIE (spoken)
Yes, OURS!

DAN
Here's Dad at my recital,
And we're wondering where you are.

DIANA
I remember this,
I made it to the school.

DAN (spoken):
Wait, you remember?

DIANA
It was the year of too much lithium,
I hid out in the car.

DAN (spoken):
Yes!

DIANA
And your swim meet just last year, I'm in the pool..

NATALIE (spoken)
So you are.

DAN
You're getting it,
You've got it, Di.
Hooray!

DIANA
Your life has kind of sucked, I think.

NATALIE
You've got it, yay, hooray!

DAN
Hooray!

DIANA
Hooray!
Gonna get back what I lost there.
Gonna find out who I was.
Gonna open up the gates and let it pour.

DAN
And if memory makes things better,
Well memory always does.
Gonna get us back to better than before.

DIANA & DAN
Make everything much better than before.

NATALIE
Won't anything be better than before?

DIANA
I guess it must be

DAN, DIANA & NATALIE
Better than before.
Better than before.