how can I keep the dock in view at all times?

Are you maybe viewing Mail in Full Screen mode my friend?

How to exit full screen mode on macOS 

When you want to leave full-screen mode, move your cursor to the top of your display to show your app’s toolbar or title bar and click the green button. Another way you can exit full screen mode is to press Command-Control-F, or choose View > Exit Full Screen.

Press the Option key and then click the green button. This expands the window to take up as much space as possible, while not hiding the menu bar and Dock. This is not the same as full-screen mode, but it takes advantage of as much of your display as possible while still allowing you to see the menu bar and (if it’s not hidden) the Dock.

System Preferences>Dock, uncheck automatically show/hide Dock.

You may have a couple of years on me, not sure when I was born!