Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg speaks on husband's death in powerful commencement speech

Just over a year after the death of her husband, SurveyMonkey CEO Dave Goldberg, Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg, opened up and gave the public more insight into her family's struggle after the death of her partner.

In remarks delivered to the class of 2016 at the University of California at Berkeley on Saturday, Sandberg elaborated on how she's coped with her husband's death while continuing to lead one of the biggest tech companies on the planet.

"I have never spoken publicly about this before. It’s hard," said Sandberg. "One year and thirteen days ago, I lost my husband, Dave. His death was sudden and unexpected. We were at a friend’s fiftieth birthday party in Mexico. 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 then went on to detail some of the personal pain and adjustment necessary to move forward without Goldberg.

"You can learn the lessons that I only learned in death. Lessons about hope, strength, and the light within us..."

"Dave’s death changed me in very profound ways," said Sandberg. "I learned about the depths of sadness and the brutality of loss … I'm sharing this with you in the hopes that today, as you take the next step in your life, you can learn the lessons that I only learned in death. Lessons about hope, strength, and the light within us that will not be extinguished."

Sandberg continued by reframing the pain of loss and the lessons learned over the past year into a message of strength and growth designed to inspire the new graduates.

"As a representative of Silicon Valley, I’m pleased to tell you there is data to learn from," said Sandberg. "After spending decades studying how people deal with setbacks, psychologist Martin Seligman found that there are three P’s—personalization, pervasiveness, and permanence—that are critical to how we bounce back from hardship. The seeds of resilience are planted in the way we process the negative events in our lives."

At times speaking through both tears and smiles as she mixed in dashes of humor with her serious message, Sandberg ended her speech, which you can view in full on YouTube, with a powerful, final message.

"Build resilience in yourselves," said Sandberg. "When tragedy or disappointment strike, know that you have the ability to get through absolutely anything. I promise you do. As the saying goes, we are more vulnerable than we ever thought, but we are stronger than we ever imagined … Build resilient organizations … My favorite poster at work reads, 'Nothing at Facebook is someone else’s problem.' When you see something that’s broken, go fix it."

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