[Verse 1]
Dad’s voice through the walls
Like plates hit the sink
We learned how to breathe
Before we learned to think
Little hands on the door
Holding back the fear
Every word was a storm
Every night was a year
[Pre-Chorus]
Then the rooms went quiet
Like the house held its breath
Cancer took the thunder
Left us staring at death
And he looked at us soft
For the first time in life
That made the goodbye
Cut deeper than a knife
[Chorus]
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
We hated what he was
Then he softened at the end
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
The man who broke our home
Still felt like home again
[Verse 2]
Now I replay the days
In the dust and the smoke
The old mean bite in his mouth
The last gentler joke
We wanted our freedom
We wanted the door
But love got all tangled
With what came before
So we stood by the bed
With our anger in chains
Watching him shrink
While the silence stayed
[Pre-Chorus]
Then the rooms went quiet
Like the house held its breath
Cancer took the thunder
Left us staring at death
And he looked at us soft
For the first time in life
That made the goodbye
Cut deeper than a knife
[Chorus]
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
We hated what he was
Then he softened at the end
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
The man who broke our home
Still felt like home again
[Bridge]
I don’t clean it up
I don’t make it pure
Some wounds leave a scar
That still needs the cure
I can miss his hands
And still tell the truth
He was hurt, he was cruel
Then he was almost proof
That a soul can change
When the clock runs thin
And I hate that it mattered
That we loved him again
[Final Chorus]
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
We hated what he was
Then he softened at the end
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
The man who broke our home
Still felt like home again
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
We buried the wreckage
But we buried him too
Hard to let him go
Hard to let him go
He left us with the ache
Of a love we couldn’t choose