Mary Chapin Carpenter - Family Hands Lyrics
Last sunday we got in the car and we droveTo the town you were raised in, your boyhood homeThe trees were just turning, up on the ridgeAnd this was your valley when you were a kidYou showed me the railroad that your daddy worked onAs we neared the old house where your granny lives onShes nearing ninety years now, with her daughters by her sideWho tend the places in the heart where loneliness can hideChorus: raised by the women who are stronger than you knowA patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewnThe threads were stitched by family hands, protected from the mothBy your mother...and her mother, the weavers of your clothYour grandmother owned a gun in 1932When times were bad just everywhere, you said she used it tooAnd the life and times of everyone are traced inside their palmsHer skin may be so weathered, but her grip is still so strongAnd I see your eyes belong to her and too your mama tooA slice of virginia sky, the clearest shade of blueChorus:And a rich man you might never be, theyd love you just the sameTheyve handed down so much to you besides your christian nameAnd the spoken word wont heal you like the laying on of handsBelonging to the ones who raised you to a manChorus:
