Never A Stranger
I’ve never been a stranger before
And I’ll never be a stranger again
It was only just now that I lost you somehow…
The way I remember you then
It happened in an unguarded moment
When I saw you in the first morning light
As I looked in your face and I felt just a trace
Of a stranger’s embrace in the night
The worst of it’s over. I guess it’s all right
We can’t deny it anymore
It’s been much too long
and we know something’s wrong
And we can’t pretend it’s just the same as before
So when we drift apart now and then
We can always remember back when
We grew older and wiser
but never stayed the same
And we’ll never be strangers again
©1995 Glen F. Nemeth • All Rights Reserved
Decades ago I had this persistent vision of a scene of a man returning
to his wife after a tour overseas in some war, probably World War I.
They hadn't been married long when he was called away, and
when he came back she seemed like a stranger. He knew it wouldn't last,
that they would find renewed familiarity in the coming years.
I had a similar experience with my first wife in 1976 after
returning from Italy after a six month naval cruise. So this song, which
I wrote a year after my divorce in 1992, blends the feelings of one with
the images of the other. Unlike the people in the song, though, my first
wife and I remained strangers.
— Glen
Never A Stranger