Rico Nadara - Parinti Mei (cover Florin Cercel Live 2022) -

As the sun began to set, casting a golden hue over the village, the melody of a distant accordion drifted through the air. It was a tune his father used to hum every Sunday.

He remembered his father’s hands—rough, calloused, and stained with the grease of the tractors he fixed to pay for Matei’s university tuition. He remembered his mother’s eyes, always tired but always sparkling when she managed to tuck an extra few banknotes into his coat pocket before he left for the city.

"You are our pride," they had told him. "Our tired backs are the bridge for you to walk toward the sun."

Matei walked toward the porch where his parents now sat, gray-haired and quiet. They didn't see him at first. His father was peeling an apple for his mother, a simple gesture of a lifetime of shared burdens.

Matei stood at the edge of the old plum orchard, his expensive leather shoes sinking into the soft earth he hadn’t trod upon in years. In his hand, he clutched a small, weathered photograph of a young couple standing in front of a half-built house—his parents.