Little girls grow up, daddies grow older

Five years old, blonde and bright-eyed
She giggles as he makes silly faces
And raises her high above his head.
Twenty-four and a father of three,
He smiles at his bouncing children,
Two girls with a boy sandwiched in between.

At the age of ten she's smart as can be
And just as stubborn as her dad.
They butt heads a little, but she has yet
to find her voice, her place, her passion.
He is proud of her, more than she can know;
He also worries but tries not to let it show.

She is 22 and he is 41 as he walks her down the aisle.
This is a day he knew would come
He said, "Her mother and I do."
She kissed him on the cheek;
And as another man took her hand
A woman stood where his little girl had been.

He is 48. She is 29 and doesn't know what to do.
Her father has always been so strong.
Through sunny days and cold, dark nights
Times were tough. He was tougher.
Here comes the invader, a scourge of human kind
The same one that took her granddad when she was less than 9.

He is fighting, and he is winning
But, it is a battle hard fought
He is burned and hurting.
He has aged a decade in less than a year
Her head knows everything is fine
Her heart, however, is filled with fear.