Songfacts®:

• This tear-jerking song finds an anguished Marcus Mumford at his dying grandmother's bedside.
  
  Before you leave you must know you are beloved
  And before you leave remember I was with you
  And as you leave
  I won't hold you back beloved
  
  Mumford told The Guardian that he was with his grandmother as she passed away. He described the experience of being present as she died as "chilling."
• Mumford said in a video track by track that after he came up with this song's demo, it really came together under producer Paul Epworth's guidance. "It has become a very really rhythmically lead song which is a kind of trademark of his," he said.
  
  British producer Paul Epworth is best known for helming Adele's smash hit "Rolling In The Deep" and winning an Oscar with the same British vocalist for the James Bond theme tune, "Skyfall." Epworth's credits also include songs with Coldplay, Florence + the Machine and Paul McCartney.
• The song's tear-jerking music video was directed by filmmaker Charlotte Regan, whose short film Standby was nominated for a BAFTA in 2016. The clip was filmed in Port Talbot, Wales and focuses on a young boy and his dying mother who absconds from a hospital so they can spend one last day together.
  
  The press release describes the emotional narrative as reflecting, "the song's lyrical touchpoints of death, the heartache of its acceptance, and the long-standing memories we cling to in its wake."
  
  Marcus Mumford said of the visual: "Everyone knows loss in one way or another. This song is about that. But there's wildness and beauty in it as well, and a deep honoring, that became the beginnings of this song that we worked up called, Beloved."