Family Hands lyrics

Artist  : Mary Chapin Carpenter 
Song : Family Hands
 
Last sunday we got in the car and we drove
To the town you were raised in, your boyhood
home
The trees were just turning, up on the ridge
And this was your valley when you were a kid
You showed me the railroad that your daddy worked
on
As we neared the old house where your granny
lives on
She’s nearing ninety years now, with her
daughters by her side
Who tend the places in the heart where loneliness
can hide

Chorus:	raised by the women who are stronger than
you know
A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have
sewn
The threads were stitched by family hands,
protected from the moth
By your mother...and her mother, the weavers of
your cloth

Your grandmother owned a gun in 1932
When times were bad just everywhere, you said she
used it too
And the life and times of everyone are traced
inside their palms
Her skin may be so weathered, but her grip is
still so strong
And I see your eyes belong to her and too your
mama too
A slice of virginia sky, the clearest shade of
blue

Chorus:

And a rich man you might never be, they’d love
you just the same
They’ve handed down so much to you besides your
christian name
And the spoken word won’t heal you like the
laying on of hands
Belonging to the ones who raised you to a man

Chorus: