Whether we read this as a brief spiritual interlude happening in real time or a clever use of the movie’s repeated concept that water holds memory (and thus Elsa has found a projection of her mother from the past) seems unimportant. The pained tenderness of Elsa’s expression when she first sees Queen Iduna is what stayed with me — because it felt so earnest and spot on.

Now that I have daughters of my own, I spend a lot of time thinking about what their life might be like were I to die young. Everyone experiences grief uniquely, but it’s not lost on me that in the event of my untimely death, no one close to them would understand their loss better than me, but I wouldn’t be there to shepherd them through it.

This might be why I found Elsa’s hard-won moment of self-discovery so poignant. At the climax of the scene in Ahtohallan’s ice cave (featuring the gorgeous mother-daughter duet “Show Yourself”), Queen Iduna offers Elsa a single line from the folk lullaby of the girls’ childhood. When she hears it, Elsa turns toward her mother’s image, belting out in response, “I am found.” It’s a powerful moment even without considering one’s own loss, but sitting in the dark theater next to my oldest daughter, I was touched by the message of how our connections to the people we love can continue to evolve and strengthen long after they’re gone.

As Elsa’s ancestral past is rewritten and she grapples with her role in Arendelle’s future, as she’s separated from her sister and faces down the most arduous parts of her journey alone, as her identity kaleidoscopes and then reforms in a new order, her mother’s voice is what helps lead her to the truth.

We can celebrate “Frozen II” for scratching the surface of important social and cultural issues in this surprising origin story, but there’s another takeaway for parents: a reminder that we’re tethered to our children in ways that will outlast whatever time with them we have. As my daughters watch this movie again (and again), I hope they’ll take note of the unshakable bond between sisters, of the truth that they’re the heroes of their own stories, of the idea that women can be powerful and capable even when they feel afraid or unsure.

But I also hope they absorb the movie’s less central lesson — regardless of whether their mother is here physically, they always carry me with them. In their most difficult days, they can still look to my love to guide them.