Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg Breaks Silence after Husband’s Memorial Service

Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg re-emerged in public on Tuesday, following her husband's memorial service and paid a heart-wrenching tribute to him on her Facebook page.

Dave Goldberg, 47, died last Saturday after tripping from a treadmill at a private villa near Puerto Vallarta, while out for a family vacation in Mexico. He hit his head, thereby causing him brain injury and hypovolemic shock, which resulted in massive blood and fluid loss.

Goldberg was the chief executive officer of SurveyMonkey since 2009, after having worked for venture firm Benchmark and founding Launch Media and selling it to Yahoo Inc in 2001. His death was mourned across the country, even by the President Barack Obama.

Sheryl, who took quite a few days to come to terms with the sudden tragedy, finally spoke up after her husband's Silicon Valley memorial service, which had the tech world's top executives occupy a 1,700-seat auditorium. She thanked all those who had sent their condolences for Goldberg, saying that each story and incident that was shared by them would help keep Goldberg alive in their hearts, minds and memories.

Married to Goldberg for over 11 years, Sandberg is survived by two children. Sandberg described her 11 years of marriage and 10 years of being a parent with Goldberg as the best period of her life and said even if she had known that Goldberg would leave her so soon, she still would have walked the aisle with him. She referred to the passing away of her husband as the 'darkest and saddest' moment of her life. She even changed her Facebook cover photo to a picture of her and Goldberg dancing at their wedding in 2004.

President Obama too paid homage to Goldberg, saying, "David Goldberg embodied the definition of a real leader - someone who was always looking for ways to empower others".