[VERSE 1] The seventeenth is coming soon, but this year you’re far from home. No candles at my kitchen table, no footsteps coming through the door. Still, I know beneath that uniform is the son I’ve always known— only now the world can see the strength I watched you grow. [PRE-CHORUS] I know the weight behind the honor. I know what duty asks you for. I wore the Navy on my heart before you ever wore yours. [CHORUS] Wherever you stand the watch, Daniel, wherever the restless water rolls, your mother’s pride is there beside you— an anchor tied around your soul. Though I can’t bring you home for your birthday, I’ll send these words across the blue: the Navy may have you today, my son, but my heart is standing watch with you. [VERSE 2] Some birthdays pass beneath familiar lights, surrounded by the ones you love. Some arrive beneath a distant sky with foreign stars burning above. There are sacrifices no one sees behind the service and the pride— the empty chair, the missing voice, and every mile stretched between our lives. [PRE-CHORUS] Distance cannot break the bond that time and tide have carried through. Before the Navy called you sailor, I was already proud of you. [CHORUS] Wherever you stand the watch, Daniel, wherever the restless water rolls, your mother’s pride is there beside you— an anchor tied around your soul. Though I can’t bring you home for your birthday, I’ll send these words across the blue: the Navy may have you today, my son, but my heart is standing watch with you. [BRIDGE] From one sailor to another, I understand the path you chose. But from a mother to her only son, there’s something you should always know: No rank could make me prouder. No distance makes you less my own. And every ocean underneath you still carries all my love from home. [FINAL CHORUS] Wherever you stand the watch, Daniel, hold your head up strong and true. You carry more than Navy colors— you carry every prayer for you. And when the seventeenth arrives, know my voice is rising too: “Happy birthday to my sailor— your mama’s standing watch with you.” [OUTRO] When the seventeenth arrives, though the miles keep us apart, no ocean has ever been wide enough to carry you beyond my heart.
