“It’s the holiday season of December 1945 in a small town somewhere in the U.S.,” says artist William S. Phillips. “The celebration is even more special this year because the war is finally over and the three generations of the family I’ve been portraying in my previous paintings If Only in My Dreams and A Christmas Leave, When Dreams Come True are finally reunited for good.”

The son, who has been fighting in the war, walks up the steps to his grandparents’ home with his fiancée, followed by the loyal dog that waited for him in If Only in My Dreams and rode with him on his way to propose marriage in A Christmas Leave. The Beechcraft Staggerwing in the distance, the classiest of classic planes, found years of post-war service in civilian transport.