V E R S E

October wind cut like a blade off the horizon

we rolled in from Florida, dream half-broke, half-running

Grandma’s place for a couple weeks, then a one-room place

I dragged her north for a better life, but I couldn’t find grace

middle of the floor in that collision shop, just a body in the way

Every dent they gave me paid half what it should’ve that day

Rent stackin’ higher than the hope I had left

Two weeks before Christmas, the boss laid me off with his breath

V E R S E 2

I walked straight up and asked him, “was this the plan all along?”

Watch good men starve while the dope gets dealt in your barn?”

he didn’t like clean hands that still had a voice

that night they tried to pass me a joint, I made my choice; it was always no

she stood right there, quiet as snow, never turned on me once

when the world showed its teeth she just smiled and said, “were not done”

C H O R U S

She never let go of my hand

when the money was gone and I wasn’t much of a man

through the shame and the cold and the lies that they told

She never let go of my hand

Lord, how’d I get a woman like that

who could see tomorrow when I couldn’t see past

every dead-end road

she never let go

V E R S E 3

Same day they fired me, a small shop took me in

Towing wrecks and fixing lives, felt like breathing again

Found a little house next to the Chief of Police

the Jensen’s next door treated us like long-lost kin

One night in that bedroom, cheap walls and a single-lamp glow

we both knew the second we prayed, God answered before we let go

B R I D G E

Sometimes mercy don’t roar; it just opens a door

when you’re too broke to knock anymore

and sometimes love ain’t loud, it’s a vow in the crowd

That says, “I believe in you” when the whole world’s walked out

C H O R U S

She never let go of my hand

when the money was gone and I wasn’t much of a man

through the shame and the cold and the lies that they told

She never let go of my hand

Lord, how’d I get a woman like that

who could see tomorrow when I couldn’t see past

every dead-end road

she never let go

O U T R O

Thank you for the woman who saw gold in a man made of dust

thank you for the daughter conceived in that miracle trust

If I had nothing left but this one thing to say

She never complained, she just stayed

She never let go of my hand

No, she never let go of my hand