Erika Kirk is setting the record straight.
Enough criticism of her public grieving process following Charlie Kirk‘s untimely death has poured in — so the widow, 36, took to social media this weekend to address the backlash.
“…there is no linear blueprint for grief,” she wrote in the caption of an Instagram post on Saturday, Oct. 11. “One day you’re collapsed on the floor crying out the name Jesus in between labored breaths. The next you’re playing with your children in the living room, surrounded by family photos, and feeling a rush of something you can only attempt to define as divinely planted and bittersweet joy as a smile breaks through on your face.”
Erika’s caption continued, “They say time heals. But love doesn’t ask to be healed. Love asks to be remembered. It’s humbling to realize that this magnitude of suffering didn’t steal my love for my husband. It amplified it. It crystallized it. I carry my Charlie in every breath, in every ache, and in every quiet act of day to day living as I attempt to relearn what that rhythm will be. And what I’ve realized through these past 30 days is the greater the suffering, the purer the love. And I have never loved him more than I do now.”
Her post features a montage of videos featuring the late Turning Point USA founder, plus snippets of his memorial held on Sept. 21 in Glendale, Arizona. As many as 90,000 people reportedly attended the service, according to Us Weekly, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
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According to The New York Times, Charlie and Erika first met in 2018 at a Turning Point USA event. At the time, Erika was living in New York City and working as an entrepreneur in the Christian clothing industry.
Charlie died on Sept. 10 at age 31 after being shot at a Utah Valley University event.