Hardest Part
Hardest Part
My maternal grandfather, David Friedman, came alone to America, as a teenager, from somewhere in Lithuania at the end of the 19thCentury. He died the year before I was born and, according to Jewish custom, I was named for him.
Shelter me from the wreckage
And the ruin of a broken heart
Deliver me
I need a messenger
Someone to guide me through the hardest part
I knew about a man, really just a boy
And he had to put aside his childish toys
Got in a boat, sailed across the sea
Never again to see his family
And when he landed he was all alone
Not a single soul to take him home
No One to offer him a helping hand
Just a solitary nomad in the promised land
Shelter me
This solitary man clawed his way into a life
Fought off his nightmares, someone found him a wife
They had a daughter and then she had me
And so begins the known story of my family tree
And they tell me he gave me my deep blue eyes
My ear for music and my thin disguise
My search for meaning in the wilderness
Perched on the rim of the big abyss
Shelter me
I came of age, had daughters of my own
Gave them all the imperfections of a loving home
Built to withstand the wayward winds
To lock the dangers out and hold the safety in
Still sometimes I waken in the dead of night
Wrapped all in emptiness, no dawn in sight
Where no light can penetrate the ancient dark
And I feel the beating of his loneliness in my heart
Shelter me from the wreckage
And the ruin of his broken heart
Deliver me, I need a messenger
Someone to guide me through the hardest part
He needed someone to guide him through the hardest part
We all need someone to guide us through the hardest part