Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg knows she isn t the only one who has dealt with the grief of losing a husband and she s reaching out to other women through social media.
Following the unexpected death of her husband, 47-year-old Survey Monkey CEO Dave Goldberg, Sandberg received a flood of comments and posts from people expressing their sympathy and condolences.
One of those people was widow Laura Wellington, who wrote a blog post for The Huffington Post Monday, outlining the challenges that widows go through and offering 10 tips to help deal with grief.
Wellington, who describes herself as a media and technology entrepreneur, noted that there are 29,000 other women under the age of 49 in the United States who are also widows.
They make up an exclusive club none of us ever wanted to become part of. We became members anyway and so did our kids, wrote Wellington, who lost her husband when she was 35 years old.
Sandberg agrees.
Laura Wellington is right – this is a club that no one wants to join, Sandberg wrote in a Facebook post on Monday night. Laura, I am sorry for your loss – and my heart goes out to the many women around the world who have experienced this loss too.
Sandberg wrote in the post that she recently went to her daughter s soccer game and her friend s grandmother, another widow, was there with an empty chair beside her.
I sat down – and before we had said 10 words to each other, I felt completely understood. She told me that she was reliving her loss through mine – and I did not even need to tell her how I felt, Sandberg wrote.
On Monday, a Facebook spokeswoman confirmed that Sandberg is returning to work but on a modified schedule. She plans to be in the office when their two young children are at school and has suspended travel for work.
A moment of silence was held at Facebook s headquarters on Monday for Goldberg, who died while vacationing in Mexico on May 1. Mexican authorities told various media outlets that it appeared that Goldberg fell off a gym treadmill and hit his head.
Silicon Valley executives, celebrities and others turned out to honor Goldberg in a memorial service at Stanford Memorial Auditorium last week.
GoPro senior vice president Zander Lurie is serving as chairman of SurveyMonkey as the company searches for a new CEO.
Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
