Sheryl Sandberg Pays Emotional Tribute After Husband's Death: 'We Put the Love of My Life to Rest Today'

As mourners remembered her husband, Dave Goldberg, in a memorial service on Tuesday, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg shared her feelings of grief in an emotional post on the social media site.

“Things will never be the same,” the Facebook Chief Operating Officer wrote. “But the world is better for the years my beloved husband lived.”

Goldberg, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and CEO of SurveyMonkey, died on Friday after reportedly suffering severe head trauma in an exercise accident at the Four Seasons Hotel in Punta Mita, Mexico. He was 47.

“We had 11 truly joyful years of the deepest love, happiest marriage, and truest partnership that I could imagine…” Sandberg, 45, wrote. “He gave me the experience of being deeply understood, truly supported and completely and utterly loved – and I will carry that with me always. Most importantly, he gave me the two most amazing children in the world.

“Dave was my rock,” she continued. “When I got upset, he stayed calm. When I was worried, he said it would be ok. When I wasn’t sure what to do, he figured it out. He was completely dedicated to his children in every way – and their strength these past few days is the best sign I could have that Dave is still here with us in spirit.”

Sandberg wrote that as heartbroken as she is today, she is equally grateful for the time they had together.

“Even in these last few days of completely unexpected hell – the darkest and saddest moments of my life – I know how lucky I have been,” she wrote. “If the day I walked down that aisle with Dave someone had told me that this would happen – that he would be taken from us all in just 11 years – I would still have walked down that aisle. Because 11 years of being Dave Goldberg’s wife, and 10 years of being a parent with him is perhaps more luck and more happiness than I could have ever imagined. I am grateful for every minute we had.”

She ended her tribute writing, “As we put the love of my life to rest today, we buried only his body. His spirit, his soul, his amazing ability to give is still with it.”

Nearly 2,000 friends, colleagues and family members gathered at a Stanford University auditorium Tuesday to celebrate Goldberg’s life.

Many members of the Silicon Valley elite – including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, former president of StubHub Chris Tsakalakis, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman – were seen in attendance.

Actor Ben Affleck, who collaborated with Goldberg on a philanthropy project in Africa, and U2 frontman Bono also paid their respects at the service.

Bono performed his song “One,” but swapped “Jesus” with “Abraham,” in an ode to Goldberg’s Jewish faith.