Song of Songs
Hi Family and friends,
Here is my latest song. It was hard but fun to put together. So hard, I included the background of how the song was built in case you are interested. The song and background are actually a crash course on the memory care journey. Spoiler alert: it is going to take God's love to get you through it. At a minimum, the lyrics by section are included so you can read along as the song plays. The lyrics will then make more sense. The song excerpts my Songs #1, #2, #3, #4, and #6.
Prayers go out to family and friends and members of the Hurtin' Heart Club (you know who you are),
- Kevin Moore
A Song of Songs
(For the Hurtin’ Heart Club)
I was hoping my next inspiration would give me a day or two to rest, but as I send out my songs, the positive feedback and testimonies of their impact have stirred up another one today. Yesterday’s song (Take My Love for You) just about wore me out, but it may be one of my best.
As I continue offering encouragement to my fellow caregivers, another idea occurred to me. All of us caregivers share so many things in common — and not the least of these is our broken hearts. I’m now calling us the Hurtin’ Heart Club. I think our group wants to hear from me because I’ve been in this Alzheimer’s battle with my wife for 15 years, and because they know I’m honestly spilling my guts out through these songs. They can relate to them.
Over the last few days, as I’ve tried to help my Club with little tidbits via email and at our meetings, I realized something: my first five songs about my Teri Trial actually trace the whole cycle of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. Of course, it’s impossible to capture every issue from a 15‑year journey in five songs of three or four minutes each. Try squeezing 15 years of anything into 20 minutes — while making every other line rhyme — and you’ll see the challenge.
1. Twice as Hard
This first song speaks to the initial intellectual hurdle every caregiver must clear. It asks why this trial is twice as hard as all the previous ones. The answer: because it is. We are dealing with the loss of the life we thought we were going to have, plus the eventual loss of our loved one. These losses run simultaneously.
Secondly, we are literally speaking, thinking, crying, and responsible for two. By definition, that is twice as hard. The sooner we accept that our life and our person are changed forever, the sooner we can begin to deal with it — in a supernatural way. The answer is not to live defeated, but to trust God, turn it over to Him, and let Him make us new. That is our victory, and His glory.
2. Be Careful What You Pray For
This song speaks to the period when the caregiver has accepted that things are changed forever and settles into making their loved one as comfortable as possible as the disease progresses. In this season, the caregiver becomes better at truly placing the trial into the capable hands of the Lord.
In my case, while searching for silver linings, I realized that a prayer I made when Teri and I first met had already been answered — though not in the way I expected. I prayed she would love me to the end. Even though her mind has slipped away, when her mind was whole, she loved me. She will never again have the capacity or desire to not love me. So, I count the prayer as answered.
Caregivers learn to treasure small victories. And we learn — deeply — that God’s ways and timing are not always ours. Trust and obedience become our daily bread.
3. Next Level Love
This song speaks to one of the greatest blessings that can come from long-term caregiving. After years of guilt, fear, anger, frustration, exhaustion, and sadness, the caregiver finally surrenders. We exhaust every tool in our human toolbox and learn that the end of me is the beginning of God.
We begin to see our loved one not merely as spouse or parent, but as a child of God — one of “the least of these” from Matthew 25. In our exhaustion and surrender, God gives us a glimpse of His love, reminds us that He loved us first, and brings to mind His new commandment in John 13:34.
This new attitude equips the caregiver for the mission at hand. It becomes a win‑win for both caregiver and cared-for.
4. From Here to Eternity
Once the caregiver receives this Next Level Love perspective, their ministry flourishes. The burden lightens. They become more resigned to the reality that they will lose their person — unless God chooses to heal them.
This song tells a true story: a friend’s father had three loving wives over several decades, all of whom died of cancer. My friend once questioned how a loving God could allow such suffering for such a faithful man. In that moment, he heard in his spirit: “Because he can.” God had prepared his father for decades to have the love, strength, and faithfulness to usher those women to the end of their earthly lives.
When my friend later told me he saw those same qualities in me, I teared up. God allowed me to see caregiving not as a chore, but as a blessing — a calling. He asked me to be His hands and feet, to usher Teri to heaven’s gate and place her into Jesus’ arms. That is a majestic perspective. A blessing, not a burden.
5. Take My Love for You
This final song speaks from the vantage point of a caregiver nearing the end of the journey. After returning home from his nightly visit to his wife’s memory care community, he sits in the driveway reflecting on their 60 years together — and on the first poem he wrote her when they were dating.
Sensing her days are growing short, he searches until he finds that sweet, four-line poem, now yellow with age. He flips the paper over and writes another four-line poem — one that took him sixty years to write. He intends it to be part of her obituary.
This song brings the Alzheimer’s journey to its inevitable conclusion: A life well lived. A wife well cared for. A God glorified. And an obituary.
A Song of Songs
So, there you have it. I’m going to try to summarize this 15‑year (and counting) journey by weaving together these five songs — a song of songs. I didn’t plan it this way; maybe God did. But these songs describe the path every member of the Hurtin’ Heart Club must walk:
Mental adjustment — accepting why this journey feels twice as hard.
Acceptance and prayer — realizing your person is not coming back, searching for silver linings, and sending up countless prayers.
Surrender and service — staying loyal to your vows, serving your loved one, surrendering control, and learning that God’s ways are perfect.
Eternal perspective — seeing caregiving not as a burden but an honor, as if God Himself asked you to usher His child to heaven’s gate.
Gratitude and legacy — looking back on your life together as a gift, seeing even the trial as a gift, and writing an obituary that honors your beautiful life with your loved one.
As I said in the first song: this is a victory for us — and praise and glory all to God.
Kevin C. Moore
08/05/26
{Note – When you listen to the song, be on the look out for the title of all five songs. I plan to work them into the lyrics on the next page}
A Song of Songs
(For the Hurtin’ Heart Club)
Verse 1 — TWICE AS HARD
We all start out in the darkness When the truth hits Twice as Hard. The life we dreamed begins to crumble, And we’re walking wounded in the yard. Two kinds of losing run together, Two kinds of love we try to save. That’s the first step on the journey— The road that shapes the hearts God gave.
Chorus
This is our Song of Songs, For every heart that’s hurt and hanging on. We walk through fire and grace, But God meets us in every phase. From the first hard truth to the last amen, He keeps stitching us together again. This is our Song of Songs— And every breath is glory to Him.
Verse 2 — BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR
Then we learn to pray for mercy, And to see what we can keep. Be Careful What You Pray For— God answers softly, sweet, and deep. Silver linings in the shadows, Little victories in the night. And though the answers come in strange ways, His timing always turns out right.
Verse 3 — NEXT LEVEL LOVE
When the guilt and fear get heavy, And the anger has its day, We reach the end of all our trying, And Next Level Love lights the way. We see our loved one as His child, And the burden turns to grace.
Bridge — FROM HERE TO ETERNITY / TAKE MY LOVE FOR YOU
And when the journey’s almost over, And the memories start to bloom, We walk From Here to Eternity, Then whisper, “Take My Love for You,” As God prepares the upper room.
Final Chorus
This is our Song of Songs, For every heart that’s hurt and hanging on. We walk through fire and grace, But God meets us in every phase. From the first hard truth to the last amen, He keeps stitching us together again. This is our Song of Songs— And every breath is glory to Him.
Outro
A life well lived, a love well kept, a God who carried us home.
