You might not be familiar with exactly who Sheryl Sandberg is so let’s tick those boxes. Sheryl is the Chief Operations Officer of Facebook and, as of last month, the widow of David Goldberg, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur famed for such ventures as LAUNCH Media and SurveyMonkey.

Goldberg died suddenly whilst working out an a treadmill after suffering a heart attack, and his death has had a profound effect on Sheryl. She took to Facebook yesterday and posted an emotional reflection on what the past thirty days have been like. Below, from TIME, are some excerpts:

I have lived thirty years in these thirty days. I am thirty years sadder. I feel like I am thirty years wiser…

I have gained a more profound understanding of what it is to be a mother, both through the depth of the agony I feel when my children scream and cry and from the connection my mother has to my pain. As heartbroken as I am, I look at my children each day and rejoice that they are alive.

She still bears some anger towards cars that slowed the ambulance ride carrying her husband to the hospital:

I still hate every car that did not move to the side, every person who cared more about arriving at their destination a few minutes earlier than making room for us to pass.

Through the whole grieving process she has kind words for her own mother who has been ever-present at her side:

She has explained to me that the anguish I am feeling is both my own and my children’s, and I understood that she was right as I saw the pain in her own eyes.” She goes on to say that her mother has been lying in bed with her at night, “holding me each night until I cry myself to sleep.”

Let this be your inspiration to hug someone you care about today…even you, tough guy wincing at reading this.

[source:time]