Grandaddy

Grandaddy”

Verse 1

They called you Grandaddy, born in the forties

Army green at barely sixteen

Left home early, learned to shoulder weight

Carried more than rifles, carried names

Quail calls breaking cold November air

Dust on your boots, prayer in your breath

Always came home when the sun went down

Loved your people hard, loved this town

Chorus

There’s a red chair by the window still

Black coffee cooling, time standing still

You wore loss like a second skin

But you never let it harden you in

Faith worn thin but always there

God and grit and a folding prayer

If love’s a legacy you leave behind

Grandaddy, you left me mine

Verse 2

Johnny Mac gone Christmas morning

Kids too young to understand mourning

Mama crying in the other room

Snow fell quiet, heaven moved

Years later the phone rang wrong

Headlights and glass, my mama gone

You didn’t curse God, you bent your knee

Held your Bible like it was holding you

Chorus

There’s a red chair by the window still

Black coffee cooling, time standing still

You wore loss like a second skin

But you never let it harden you in

Faith worn thin but always there

God and grit and a folding prayer

If love’s a legacy you leave behind

Grandaddy, you left me mine

Verse 3

You buried your bride, cancer took her slow

Held her hand, wouldn’t let her go

Then you stood back up, learned how to live

Found grace again, learned to forgive

You married again, wore a deacon’s tie

Served the church till the day you died

Said “son, Jesus ain’t scared of scars”

And I wrote that down inside my heart

Verse 4

Then the call came late, said my brother’s gone

Needles don’t care where you’re from

You held me tighter than you ever had

Didn’t say much, just said “I got you, lad”

But your mind began to slip away

Names got lost, nights turned gray

Still knew me when you saw my face

Still smiled slow, still said grace

Chorus

There’s a red chair by the window still

Black coffee cooling, time standing still

You wore loss like a second skin

But you never let it harden you in

Faith worn thin but always there

God and grit and a folding prayer

If love’s a legacy you leave behind

Grandaddy, you left me mine

Bridge

They say you and her left the same day

Like God said “enough of the pain”

Two souls walking the same old road

Back home where the quail fly low

Dementia couldn’t steal your love

Or the way you said my name, son

Even when the world went dim

You still knew who you were in Him

Outro

There’s a red chair empty now

But I feel you when I sit down

Black coffee bitter, just like truth

And every good thing I am came through you