[Verse 1]
She's the one who checks on everyone before she checks on herself,
Reads the room before she enters, puts her own needs on the shelf,
Every creature, every stranger gets the warmth she holds inside,
There's an ocean running through her that she's learned to keep and guide,
She carries laughter like a lantern she'll hand over in the dark,
The kind of soul who tends the whole world from a quietly steady heart

[PreChorus]
But all that giving costs a something that nobody ever names,
And the deepest rivers still need rain

[Chorus]
Patti, you were built from more than anyone has seen,
The funniest, the fiercest, the most faithful in between,
Every hand you've held in shadow held a piece of you as well,
Patti, you're the story worth the telling, not just the one you tell

[Verse 2]
She finds the punchline in the places where the tension's running high,
Cracks the joke that breaks the ceiling, lets some mercy in the sky,
But behind the wit there's knowing — she has measured every cost,
She remembers every kindness and she never forgets a loss,
Her devotion runs like bedrock, slow and certain, deep and sure,
What she offers someone, she means completely — nothing less, nothing more

[PreChorus]
She's given so much grace to others she forgot to keep a share,
But a gift this rare needs someone who'll take care

[Chorus]
Patti, you're not just the comfort others reach for in the cold,
You're the bolt of stubborn wonder in a story still being told,
Every animal who found you knew before you said a word,
Patti, the truest parts of you deserve to finally be heard

[Verse 3]
There's a wildness in her softness that she doesn't often show,
An instinct sharp as anything that tells her where to go,
She has walked through renovations that she never called by name,
Rebuilt what needed building, showed up different, never the same,
She was shaped by early silences she learned to fill with care,
But the home she makes for others is the proof that she was there

[PreChorus]
She's stood inside the gap for everyone who couldn't stand alone,
Now let somebody hold that door for her own

[Chorus]
Patti, every laugh you gave the room came from a well so deep,
Every creature that you sheltered was a promise that you keep,
You were forged in something ancient, patient, true beneath the bone,
Patti, all that love you scatter — some of it was always your own

[Bridge]
She doesn't need permission to receive what she's always given out,
The loyalty she perfected was never up for doubt,
Let the ones she healed come back around and steady her this time,
What she built in everyone else was always also hers to find

[Outro]
Patti, this is yours to keep,
Every grace you gave, you earned to reap