When I was a child my dad had a friend who became a very close family friend, this guy and his wife would come with us to family trips, we were very very close for a good number of years, until they had a feud and got a bit distant, but in my lifetime is one of the few close friends I saw my dad having. This friend died about 15 years ago. Today I had a dream. My home door was open, I was in the kitchen then saw this guy, initially I thought it was my dad because he was dressed similarly, then he would turn around and said, come with me I followed him and he guided me into a car parked in front of the street, I greeted him with happines, hugged him quite more than I expected, I was genuinely happy to see him , then we went into the back seat of this random car, I saw a good 5-8 people sort of staring at us around the car but could not see their faces, then I realised my dad was driving the car, he would turn around to say hello to me and smiled. Then I asked my dad's friend “you are here to take my dad with you aren´t you?" and he said "yes, but not yet" I asked when, he said "January 17th" then my dad kept having a conversation just with me, so I asked if he could see him, he said "no, just you" That's sort of all I remember.

Context: My dad is 80 years old and has dementia, has had some acute episodes recently. I live abroad and this has caused a lot of anxiety recently. I guess my question is if my brain fabricated this to give me peace, or if this family friend is actually trying to give me a message?