18 years a true love story

EIGHTEEN YEARS

For John

Verse 1

I still think about 2008,

A Turkey Hill, an ordinary day,

Who would’ve known one simple hello

Would become the rest of my life this way?

From 948 West Princess Street,

We started building something of our own.

We didn’t have a map for where we’d go,

We just knew we didn’t want to walk alone.

You met a woman with a story,

With little ones already in her heart.

And you never asked if they were yours to love,

You just loved them from the start.

No blood could tell you who your children were,

No piece of paper had to make you Dad.

You chose them simply because you loved me,

And that’s one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever had.

Chorus

Eighteen years,

And you’ve been there through everything.

Through the beautiful beginnings

And the pain we never saw coming.

You’ve held my hand through goodbye

More times than I ever wanted to.

And when this life has broken my heart,

I’ve always found my way back to you.

We’ve lost people we thought we’d have forever,

We’ve watched seasons disappear.

But after everything life has taken,

It gave me eighteen years with you.

And if this is what forever looks like,

Then forever is what I choose.

Verse 2

You held me when I lost my grandmother,

When another piece of home was gone.

And when I lost my mama,

You loved me when I didn’t know how to carry on.

Then life came for your heart too,

And you had to say goodbye to your dad.

I couldn’t take that hurt away from you,

So I gave you everything I had.

We learned that love can’t stop the hurting,

It can’t keep goodbye from coming through.

Sometimes love is simply staying

When there’s nothing else that you can do.

And baby, we stayed.

Through every funeral, every empty chair,

Every name we still wish we could call,

Somehow when the world felt different,

We still had each other through it all.

Chorus

Eighteen years,

And you’ve been there through everything.

Through the beautiful beginnings

And the pain we never saw coming.

You’ve held my hand through goodbye

More times than I ever wanted to.

And when this life has broken my heart,

I’ve always found my way back to you.

We’ve lost people we thought we’d have forever,

We’ve watched seasons disappear.

But after everything life has taken,

It gave me eighteen years with you.

And if this is what forever looks like,

Then forever is what I choose.

Verse 3

And somewhere between raising our family

And figuring out who we wanted to be,

We started chasing dreams together,

You sitting right beside me.

HACC gave us our associate’s degrees,

York College watched us grow.

Bachelor’s, master’s, then another master’s journey—

Look how far two kids in love would go.

And now we’re chasing doctorates,

Still dreaming after all these years.

Still pushing one another forward,

Still celebrating through the tears.

But baby, when I look at everything we’ve earned,

There’s something I know is true:

No title hanging on a wall

Could ever mean as much as you.

Bridge

Because you knew me before the degrees.

Bef