(Jerry Chesnut)

I never knew my mother and the closest that I came
Was a picture that my daddy showed to me
When he held it in two calloused hands and told me son don't cry
This is how the Lord intended things to be.

Daddy told me mom grew weaker on the night that I was born
How she sufferend and the doctor didn't come
And when daddy told his Maker Lord if it be Thy will please take her
How the good Lord took his wife and gave a son.

As a kid I watched my daddy carve a living from the land
Then when nighttime came he held me on his knee
And prayed the Lord would let him live till I became a man
My daddy loved this land the Lord and me.

Now I've been through a war where many died and never got a scratch
And enough of dad rubbed off on me to know how I came back
I'm a living proof the man upstairs still lives and cares and answers
The prayers of the man who loved this land the Lord and me...