Sheryl Sandberg has spoken out about the death of her husband, David Goldberg, a Silicon Valley executive who passed away suddenly on May 1st while the couple was on vacation in Mexico. Goldberg, 47, fell and hit his head while exercising on a treadmill at a hotel gym.
Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and author of Lean In, posted two photos and a tribute to Goldberg, her first lengthy comments about him since his death. She wrote:
“Dave and I did not get nearly enough time together. But as heartbroken as I am today, I am equally grateful. Even in these last few days of completely unexpected hell – the darkest and saddest moments of my life – I know how lucky I have been. If the day I walked down that aisle with Dave someone had told me that this would happen – that he would be taken from us all in just 11 years – I would still have walked down that aisle. Because 11 years of being Dave Goldberg’s wife, and 10 years of being a parent with him is perhaps more luck and more happiness than I could have ever imagined. I am grateful for every minute we had.”
Goldberg, the chief executive of SurveyMonkey, was buried today in a private memorial service at Stanford University. Male guests were encouraged not to wear ties, to honor ”Dave’s lifelong hatred of ties,” according to email invites. Sandberg wrote in her post: “Things will never be the same – but the world is better for the years my beloved husband lived.”