Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Posted Her Heartfelt Thanksgiving to the People Who Helped Her Recover from Losing Her Husband
Sheryl Sandberg lost her husband six months ago, Dave Goldberg, and in a heartfelt Thanksgiving post she admitted that "there were days when gratitude seemed beyond my grasp."
But the Lean In author, 46, added in the message posted on Facebook on Thursday, Nov. 26, that "as the months have gone by, I've realized that I still have much to be grateful for."
The Facebook Chief Operating Officer's husband died in May at the age of 47 after suffering from head trauma and blood loss when he fell off a treadmill while he and Sandberg were vacationing in Punta Mita, Mexico. Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, and his wife had two children together.
"This Thanksgiving, I want to thank my family and friends who have supported and comforted me and my children as we have recovered from grief, regained our smiles and the ability to laugh, and rediscovered all that we have to be grateful for," Sandberg wrote. "I also appreciate the many strangers who have reached out and shared their stories of tragedy, resilience, and rebirth."
Sandberg also thanked a Palo Alto, Calif., grief counseling team who "did so much to help move us forward."
"On this day of thanks, I hope that everyone out there can find something worthy of gratitude," she continued. "Loss and recovery are an inevitable part of being human, and I realize more and more that these experiences which take so much from us also give us the ability to be grateful on a deeper level."
Sheryl Kara Sandberg was born August 28, 1969, is an American technology executive, activist, and author. She is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, In June 2012, she was elected to the board of directors by the existing board members, becoming the first woman to serve on Facebook's board. Before she joined Facebook as its COO, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google and was involved in launching Google's philanthropic arm Google.org. Before Google, Sandberg served as chief of staff for United States Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers.
