Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg made a speech to University of California-Berkeley graduates on Saturday. She gave details about her husband’s death and how it has impacted her life and her family. She said that she is grateful for “each breath in and out” and for “the gift of life itself”.
Her husband, former Survey Monkey CEO Dave Goldberg, passed away at age 47 from heart disease. The couple was on vacation in Mexico when the “sudden and unexpected” incident occurred. They were celebrating the birthday of a friend.
“I took a nap. Dave went to work out. What followed was the unthinkable — walking into a gym to find him lying on the floor. Flying home to tell my children that their father was gone. Watching his casket being lowered into the ground,” she was quoted as saying by U.S.A. Today.
Dave Goldberg’s death has changed the Facebook’s COO in “profound ways”, she added. She has now learned that when life becomes difficult, one can “break the surface and breathe again”. She explained to students that death has brought her some lessons.
She wanted to teach lessons about “hope, strength and the light within us that will not be extinguished”. Goldberg said a friend psychologist helped her understand that her husband’s death could have been worse. For instance, he could have had the same cardiac arrhythmia “while driving their children”.
Sandberg has challenged students to live as if they have 11 days left
Sandberg became famous in 2013 with the best-selling book Lean In, which talks about how her husband’s support helped her achieve her goals. During 2016 Mother’s Day she said she did not consider how difficult it is for a woman to go forward as a single parent, as reported by U.S.A. Today.
She narrated how she sit in her first Facebook meeting in a “deep, deep haze”. She was wondering how everyone could be talking about work while she suddenly forgot about death and understood that things in her life “were not awful”.
The 47-year-old woman has a net worth of 1.17 billion, as reported by Forbes. She invited students to enjoy every moment.
“As you graduate, can you ask yourselves to live as if you had 11 days left?” she added.
Sandberg concluded that things such as a first kiss, a great job or “beating Stanford” are “precious moments” to be enjoyed. On Saturday, she published a video featuring her speech at the University of California-Berkeley, on her Facebook page. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, added a comment saying “beautiful and inspirational. Thank you”.
Source: NBC News