Erika Kirk Shares First Thanksgiving Message Since Her Husband's Passing
Thanksgiving is supposed to be a season defined by warmth, faith, and family — not tragedy. Yet this year, Erika Kirk faced her first Thanksgiving without her husband, conservative hero Charlie Kirk, gunned down in September in an assassination that shook the nation.
And still, even in the middle of unimaginable loss, she refused to let grief overshadow gratitude.
In a deeply emotional Instagram post — accompanied by a video that managed to be both shattering and full of hope — Kirk explained that her faith hasn’t collapsed after her husband’s murder. If anything, it has been refined.
“Charlie and I always loved Thanksgiving because it drew us back to the simple, but holy practice of gratitude,” Kirk wrote.
“And even now, well, especially now, in the depths of the ache, I’m reminded of that gratitude.
“God blessed me with being married to the love of my life, with our beautiful babies, with our family and friends, and with people from all over the world who have sent us letters, toys, artwork, and Bibles.”
Charlie Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University didn’t just break conservative America’s heart — it exposed the cost exacted on any family who stands for truth in a hostile political climate. Thousands mourned across the country and around the world, but the deepest wound belongs to Erika and her two children, a 4-year-old daughter and an 18-month-old son forced to grow up without their father.
Yet even as she navigates a nightmare no young mother should face, Erika has displayed remarkable grace — even publicly forgiving the assassin at her husband’s memorial service, a moment that stunned the nation.
Her Thanksgiving video pulls back the curtain on the quiet reality that follows public tragedy. She described telling her children that their father is in heaven, “orchestrating” unexpected blessings — handwritten cards, toys, artwork, and Bibles that arrive from across the globe.
She shared how she comforts her daughter:
“Daddy is telling all of his friends to send you gifts and letters and, you know, Daddy is orchestrating from heaven to make sure that you always feel so loved…
“Heaven is… heaven’s our home. So I just want her to know that Daddy is having so much fun and building a place for her and our family.”
Her written message reaffirmed the backbone of her strength — faith over despair. The world sees what she lost. She sees what remains.
“It’s easy to fixate on what’s been taken, at what’s missing,” she wrote. “But my goodness does the Lord meet me in my weakness, and His strength gently shifts my eyes to what I still have on this side of heaven.
“What remains is sacred.”
At a time when mainstream media and political elites routinely sneer at faith, family, and patriotism, Erika Kirk has done something radical: she chose gratitude without denying grief. She chose faith without denying pain. And she reminded the country that love — rooted in God — defies death.