If there is no afterlife, then I'm immortal: the end of my life is equivalent to the end of the universe, end of time. And in my infinite (!) life I associate certain understandings to certain things and certain events: that's meaning. This is not particularly an illusion, as it's real and there in my mind, and one way or another, abstract things exist. The illusion is the universal phenomenon itself, a spectacle we briefly assist and affect.

If there is an afterlife, I'm immortal. Thus again meaning exists, this time so in accordance with your definition thereof.

Therefore, meaning exists.