Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has opened up to the U.S. Today Show about her decision to post a lengthy note on the social network detailing the grief of losing her husband.
Sandberg said she wasn’t sure if she was going to post the note but was ultimately glad she did.
“I shared how to talk to me and how I was feeling,” she explained.
“And it changed a lot. People knew what to say. People started talking to me more openly. And even strangers, because I’m not the only person who has experienced loss.”
On the 30-day anniversary of her husband Dave’s sudden death in May, Sandberg wrote, “Real empathy is sometimes not insisting that it will be okay but acknowledging that it is not. When people say to me, ‘You and your children will find happiness again,’ my heart tells me, Yes, I believe that, but I know I will never feel pure joy again.”
The Facebook executive said the outpouring of support she received after posting the note – it garnered over 73,000 comments – helped her and her two children immensely.
“As I look to the New Year, and my children and I have worked so hard to rebuild our lives and find happiness, and joy and gratitude again, I think the support of strangers and our friends made a huge difference.
“I always loved Facebook’s mission, but now I feel even closer to it in, I think, a much deeper and more profound way.”
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