Hope For Hurting Hearts

We have a tendency to go about our day-to-day routines under the assumption that this earthly existence of ours will never change. But it does, and it will. Our residency here on Earth is quite brief and precarious. Nothing brings that more to light than when a loved one unexpectedly steps out of this life into eternity. We are shaken and begin to ask the bigger questions:

IS Heaven real? Will I see them again? How can I know for sure?