Songfacts®:

• This poignant ballad is about Pop music singer-songwriter Amy Grant's mother. The singer told Christianity Today about her mom: "Her childhood was not easy. Her parents divorced when she was two—and that was not happening in 1933. Her dad died when she was a little girl. And so with us, she always had a kind of vulnerability. But I always knew she loved me. She was very gracious and kind. My mom would say things to me when I was growing up like 'Don't worry, Amy. A woman's most beautiful years are 35 to 45.' Which really takes the heat off when you're looking at pimples in the mirror, or even when you cross the threshold of being 21: 'Woo-hoo, you can order a beer.' But for her to have the wisdom to say when you're really going to feel beautiful, and that will translate to looking beautiful, is when you have life under your belt. I just love that. Totally took the heat off. Don't worry. Thirty-five, I'll be there."
• The song was a favorite at Grant's live shows for several years before it became available in physical form for the first time on Somewhere Down the Road.