I’ll be home for Christmas. You can plan on me. Please have snow, and mistletoe, and presents on the tree. Christmas Eve you’ll find me where the love-light gleams. I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.

Written in 1943 by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent, this song was originally recorded by Bing Crosby. It was written as a letter from one of the soldiers fighting in World War II to his family and ends with that heart-wrenching line – if only in my dreams.

I remember when my father died, almost thirty years ago now, this was the song that my mom could not stand to listen to that year.

It is difficult when loved ones cannot come home – something our military families must deal with every single year. And this year, with the global pandemic going on, there are many other families who find themselves unable to be together this year.

For some of us, we find that our loved ones are not only unable to be there this year. They never will be with us again.

Unlike my mom, I still love this song and find myself listening to it every time it comes on. Yes, it does make me cry a bit sometimes. But honestly, I know he still comes and visits my dreams. And I know he still watches over us.

Yes, it hurts. Yet, something Brad and I both learned well during this life is that sometimes there is beauty even in the pain.

So for all of you who are missing your loved ones right now – remember you are not alone. It’s okay to cry. It’s alright to admit that your heart is breaking. And you do not have to be perfectly happy all the time.

Just know that somewhere in the celestial realms, perhaps in that place where we still remember dreaming, the all the love we have felt still holds us safe, even on days when it feels too difficult to breathe.