The song tells the story of an old woman, who spends her last money at Radio Kootwijk so that, for the first time in years, she can hear the voice of her son, who lives in Bandoeng with his "little brown wife" and their children. In the refrain, the son greets his mother and, with a sob, she greets her dearest boy. The son asks how she's doing ("how are you, old woman"), but her answer is only that she misses him so much. When the woman asks about his wife, her son tells her that they talk about her every day and that the children pray for the granny they've never met each evening and kiss her portrait before going to sleep. In only four more years he'll be back in Holland and will hug her. He then tells her that his youngest son is with him and the boy greets her: "dear grandmother, tabe, tabe" (a greeting in Indonesian). Upon hearing this the woman thanks the Lord for allowing her to have heard her grandsons voice and collapses crying. The last version of the refrain is modified. The son calls his mother again, but only hears a sob. The last sentence has the woman dead and the child calling "Tabe".

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