In 2015, Taylor Swift wrote a heartbreaking letter to her fans in which she shared that her mother, Andrea Swift, had been diagnosed with cancer.

Four years later, Swift revealed in an Elle UK essay that Andrea had experienced a relapse and was once again facing the disease.

Swift wrote "You'll Get Better" for her Lover album about her mother's battle with cancer. She starts off by recounting her tactics of avoidance:

The buttons of my coat were tangled in my hair
In doctor's office lighting, I didn't tell you I was scared
That was the first time we were there

She later puts everything in perspective.

I hate to make this all about me
But who am I talk to, what am I supposed to do, if there is no you?

During a YouTube live stream just before Lover's release, Swift admitted this was the most emotionally difficult song to write - she was unsure whether to include the song on the album and asked her family; they told her to put it on the record.

Swift previously sang about her mom on her 2008 track "The Best Day." That song was written as a love letter to her mother as a surprise Christmas present.

Swift penned the song with Jack Antonoff, who is credited as a co-writer on eight of the 18 Lover tracks. The subject matter is something Antonoff knows all too well, having lost a little sister to cancer while he was in high school. His Bleachers song "Everybody Lost Somebody" is about that tragic event.

The song is a collaboration with The Dixie Chicks, who harmonize over banjo, fiddle and Wurlitzer. They are one of her mom's favourite acts, and Swift is a professed fan of the country pop legends as well. Their "Cowboy Take Me Away" was one of the first songs she learned on the guitar.

In April 2015, Swift invited lead singer Natalie Maines to be her special guest at a show in Los Angeles during which she revealed the Chicks' hit "Goodbye Earl" used to be her "go-to talent show song. I've sung it probably 7,000 times in my life."

"If not for this woman and her band, I would not have known that you could be quirky, be fun, be yourself, be outspoken and brave and real," Swift added. "I wouldn't have, when I was, you know, 9 years old, gotten my first CD. I wouldn't have dreamed the things that I dreamed, and I wouldn't be standing on this stage today."

The Swift / Dixie Chicks collaboration was foreshadowed when Taylor released her "Me!" music video. The clip features a picture of the Chicks among a wall filled with paintings of baby chickens wearing sunglasses, starting 0:36 into the visual. At the time, many of Swift's fans took this to be an "Easter egg" that the country trio would feature on Lover.

The song was Taylor Swift's first Top 10 Country hit in a lead role since the #2-peaking "Red" in December 2013.