52 Songs Project #50: Filomena
This is the first song I wrote. It's about my grandmother who came from Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal. I look at the song now as a simple and sentimental song, but I still love it and especially enjoy the last lines, about how my grandmother and I are connected, even though we lived such different lives and had very different personalities.
And a big thanks to Eliana and Rachel Kertzner for lending their beautiful voices to this song!
Filomena, a tiny woman
Little old lady, my mother's mother
Filomena rode a boat across the ocean
To the other side of the world.
Filomena, a brave young woman
Went to mass one Sunday and met a giant
Filomena married him two months later
Had five children, and some chickens, and a jungle of flowers
From old to new, from young to old, from hearth and home to far away
I have sailed away from her, but I'll circle back again someday.
Filomena, a generous woman
Fed me ice cream with a glass of soda
Filomena couldn't hear me very much
But she loved me, even when I broke her bed, and her teacup, and her coffee table, and her garage door, and her statue of St. Teresa, and her heart.
Oh, what a generous woman
From old to new, from young to old, from hearth and home to far away
I have sailed away from her, but I'll circle back again someday.
Wasn't time enough for you and me
To understand each other but now I see
That we were bound from that sunny day
That you set sail to find a better way
My Filomena, a tiny old woman
A brave new woman, a generous woman
Filomena didn't know that I was traveling behind
Now I see
I am living Filomena's dream.
For a little more about Filomena, visit http://www.marieschumacher.com/year-o...