The World is Full of Heroes
Written for and performed at the funeral of Nemo’s late father, Jack Newark.
Chorus
The world is full of heroes, though few of them are know
There’s some that stand in battlefields and some that stand at home
There’s a million debts of bravery, that will never be repaid
The world is full of heroes and here lies one today
A young man shelters in a field, each day could be his last
Death hides round every corner and rains with every blast
He spends a lifetime thinking of the man who saved his life
The unknown fallen hero left an unknown child and wife
And when the war is over there’s still no place to hide
so he bravely soldiers on each day for his family to provide
through guilty years he can’t accept that better men lay dead
For years his sleep is broken, by the screaming in his head
Chorus
A young girl shelters in a storm, hungry and afraid
While buildings rocked by angry bombs, demand a price be paid
From dusty ruins she builds a life, fighting every day
To keep her children safe and warm and help them find their way
Laying down her life each day for those she holds so dear
Asking nothing in return hiding every tear
Look around at what you have and all you hope to be
We owe it all to sacrifice of those who kept us free
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG
I wrote and performed this song at my father’s funeral in 2013. He was not only a World War II hero for his part in the liberation of Italy but also for getting through the rest of his life with undiagnosed PTSD and survivor guilt. He still woke up screaming in the middle of the night in his mid-sixties. He was a wonderful role model, always insisting that his children behaved honourably and with social awareness, but without judging us if we didn’t match up to his high standards.
There is a reference in the song to the man who saved his life and those of many other but sadly never survived himself. You can read more about him at A Hero Unknown
My parents met in Milan at the end of the war, and as far as I am concerned, my mother is also a hero for bringing up four children in such difficult circumstances.