How To Handle Grief

Facebook executive and author Sheryl Sandberg is determined to continue living a meaningful life after the death of her late husband, Dave Goldberg.

She has shared her experience of grief in a post which is as inspiring as it is emotional – and contains some great advice for others on how to treat the bereaved.

"I have lived thirty years in these thirty days. I am thirty years sadder. I feel like I am thirty years wiser," Sandberg said on Facebook.

"A childhood friend of mine who is now a rabbi recently told me that the most powerful one-line prayer he has ever read is: Let me not die while I am still alive.

"I would have never understood that prayer before losing Dave. Now I do."

Sandberg said when tragedy happens we are faced with a choice.

"You can give in to the void, the emptiness that fills your heart, your lungs, constricts your ability to think or even breathe. Or you can try to find meaning," she said.

"When I can, I want to choose life and meaning."

Although Sandberg said will never experience pure joy again she believes she will find happiness again.

Goldberg died aged 47 in Mexico after falling off a treadmill while on holiday with Sandberg.

Sandberg is now raising the couple's son and daughter on her own.

She is the author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.



- www.nzherald.co.nz and Facebook