“Give Me A Minute” Captures the Aftermath of Loss, as Jaime Deraz Pushes Back Against the World Moving On

Released October 24, 2025, the singer-songwriter track captures the raw truth of loss when expectations of healing begin to close in before someone is ready. Deraz does not romanticize the process. She names the pressure, the loneliness, and the panic that can come when everyone else’s sympathy has an end time, but your grief does not.

The song is built around the simplest request in the middle of a life-altering moment: slow down. Let me exist here. Let me have time.

A portrait of grief in the in-between moments

“Give Me A Minute” centers on what happens after the funeral, when the condolences arrive, the routines restart, and support begins to thin out. Deraz captures that shift with brutally clear writing. “My friends send me flowers then run off to other engagements, so I hit the floor as they hit the road” turns a familiar ritual into a gut punch, the contrast between their moving on and her collapsing.

She follows that with a line that feels like a private admission finally spoken out loud: “I shouldn’t take it personal, but personally I struggle to breathe with no one but me.” The lyric lands because it is both rational and honest at once. She understands that people have lives. She also understands that understanding does not make it hurt less.

Then the song distills its core truth into one of its most striking moments: “I just need my skin to be a little more thick, I just needed my mom to be a little less sick.” It is a line that holds two wishes at the same time, one about endurance, one about the impossible. Deraz frames grief not as a grand tragedy, but as a series of small needs that cannot be met.

A production choice that makes space for the moment

One of the record’s most impactful sections arrives when the choir continues singing while Deraz takes a literal moment after the words “I just need my Mom,” letting silence and breath become part of the performance. The choice feels like an artist refusing to rush her own pain to make it easier for someone else to listen.

The track’s outro reinforces that theme with an organ-like progression that evokes a procession, closing the song with a sense of ceremony and weight. Rather than offering resolution, the production leans into presence, honoring the fact that grief does not wrap itself up on schedule.

Why we're in pieces 💔

“Give Me A Minute” speaks to the part of loss that is rarely captured as clearly: the moment when the world’s attention shifts away, and you are left alone with the reality of what happened. It articulates the distance between social sympathy and private devastation, and the exhausting pressure to appear “better” before you are.

For listeners who have experienced grief, especially in the weeks after the funeral when support becomes quieter, “Give Me A Minute” lands as recognition. It is a reminder that healing is not a performance, and that asking for time is not weakness. It is honesty.