The Antlers - Shiva Lyrics

Guys, this whole album is a story.
From cover to cover, he's telling a story about his wife, Sylvia, who died from bone cancer, and so he had to check himself into a hospice, where he wrote all of these songs, hence the album title, hospice.
This particular one is about the day she died, and a hospital worker gives him back her wedding ring, and so he starts feeling like her.

I think this song is about transference, how one so close to someone dying dies a little too. The femur comes from the fact that the girl has bone cancer, and there are many references to rings on their fingers through the album so i think thy got married quickly because she was dying "two rings on our fingers in a hurry"- from two. But also the album kind of wavers between a literal story of cancer and a general story of an emotionally draining relationship.

Is he obsessed with femurs? He's mentioned it in this song an in Two. Is there a story behind it?

This song, and the whole album reminds me of my grandmother who recently died of cancer. We knew that when i was leaving it would literally be the last goodbye. This song moves me to tears

He could have easily taken it off of her and he sits there admiring it when she visits him for the last time.

no, the person that gave him the ring was probably a hospital worker. she didn't watch over him, on the contrary she haunted him both dead and alive, and all he felt he could do (and indeed COULD do) was sit by and support her through the tantrums, blame, and mockery. don't get me wrong; I would probably do the same in her place considering their engagement was a sham and the pain would be intolerable, but that's exactly how everything happened.

wow, she passed after all he had gone through to stay with her and in spirit just before departing she gave him a visit. I love it