“Love, Gail”
VERSE 1
Five years old
Little blue-eyed girl
Standing in the middle of a broken world
Too young to understand
Why home didn’t feel like home anymore
Why love could split people apart
And then there you were
Picking up pieces
Before you even knew my name
A woman choosing responsibility
For a life she didn’t make
A child she didn’t have to love
But you did
Quietly
Completely
From the very start
⸻
PRE-CHORUS
Some people become mothers by blood
Some become mothers by showing up
Again
And again
And again
⸻
CHORUS
You were always my mother
In my heart
In the lunchbox notes
Signed “Love Gail, xoxo”
That made hard days softer
In the late night phone calls
When you stayed on the line for hours
Just to make sure I was okay
In every little way
You made me feel chosen
And now that I’m a mother too
I finally understand
How extraordinary it is
To love a child
Like they were always yours
⸻
VERSE 2
You made ordinary things feel sacred
Back scratches after dinner
Shopping trips just to make me feel pretty
Care packages filled with little things
That whispered
“I thought about you today”
You always saw me
Even in the seasons
I probably wasn’t easy to love
And when I got sick
You held me with such gentleness
That safety started feeling like a person
You stood beside me at my wedding
Took me to buy my first motherhood clothes
Held my hand through becoming a mother myself
And now watching you love my babies
I see it all again
The patience
The steadiness
The way love lives naturally inside you
⸻
PRE-CHORUS
And maybe broken things
Don’t always stay broken
Maybe sometimes
They become families
⸻
CHORUS
You were always my mother
In my heart
In every thoughtful gift
Every note
Every moment you made me feel seen
In the way you showed up
Near and far
Big ways and little ways
You loved me consistently
And now that I’m older
I realize what you really gave me
Not just love
But the feeling
Of being worth loving
⸻
BRIDGE
You didn’t get the first years
But somehow
You healed parts of them anyway
And if I had to live it all again
The heartbreak
The splitting
The uncertainty
I still would
Because somehow
On the other side of it all
There was you
⸻
FINAL CHORUS
So if my children grow up
Feeling safe
Seen
Held
Deeply loved
It’ll be because I learned from you
From your gentle hands
Your listening heart
Your quiet way of carrying people
You were never “like” a mother
You were mine
And you still are
Love you Mom
Xoxo
