One year after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot, his widow, Erika Kirk, is describing the words she says helped her survive the earliest hours of grief: “Just get through the next 15 minutes.”
In an essay reported by The Christian Post, Erika Kirk recalled returning home to Phoenix from Utah on Sept. 11, 2025, one day after her husband’s death. She wrote that her children ran into her arms when she arrived, and that walking through the front door brought a physical tightness in her chest she had never felt before.
“I sit on the couch where Charlie sat two nights ago watching the Cubs with our kids. I feel a wave building inside me, and I know it’s about to crash,” she wrote.
The Advice That Stayed With Her
Earlier that day, Kirk said she had confided in second lady Usha Vance that she did not know how she would endure what was ahead.
According to Kirk, Vance compared the moment to the final 15 minutes of a flight with children, when they may be crying, screaming or throwing things before the plane lands and the chaos finally settles.
“That’s how it will be. Just get through the next 15 minutes,” Vance told her, according to Kirk.
Kirk wrote that the counsel stayed with her through the first year of widowhood, as she faced birthdays, holidays and anniversaries without her husband.
A Year Measured in Grief and Ordinary Moments
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025. The Christian Post reported that the case against Tyler Robinson, who is accused of killing Kirk, is moving toward trial after a Utah judge ruled prosecutors had established probable cause for the case to proceed.
For Erika Kirk, however, the year has been marked not only by court developments but by daily reminders of absence. She wrote that for months she avoided the bedroom she had shared with her husband, knowing she would eventually have to face the pain and memories, but only gradually.
“Grief is strange. Time continues even when every part of you wants it to pause or, better yet, rewind,” she wrote.
She added that at first she needed only to survive the next 15 minutes, but over time she came to believe Charlie would want her to live them.
Faith Without Easy Answers
Kirk wrote that she has been asked whether she is angry at God. Her answer, she said, is no.
She described herself as blessed to have been Charlie Kirk’s wife and wrote that she believes he fulfilled his life’s purpose. She also acknowledged that losing someone deeply loved can leave questions without immediate answers.
For Kirk, faith does not mean having an explanation for everything. Instead, she wrote, it means accepting that some things cannot be understood and finding peace in that reality.
“I have seen extraordinary good born out of something unimaginably evil. I have watched people return to faith in droves, reconcile with their families and forgive old wounds because of Charlie,” she wrote. “I know my husband is in heaven, but I ache for him to be here. Still, I can stand and say without a shadow of a doubt that God is good.”
The Christian Post also reported that, in the days after Kirk’s death, several pastors around the country said they saw a rise in church attendance, especially among young adults.
Forgiveness After the Shooting
At Charlie Kirk’s memorial service last year at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, Erika Kirk publicly forgave the man charged in her husband’s killing.
She said she forgave him because Jesus Christ forgave those who crucified Him, and because she believed Charlie would do the same.
“The answer to hate is not hate,” she said at the service. “The answer we know from the Gospel is love, is always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
For others walking through grief, Kirk offered the same words that helped her through the first moments of loss: get through the next 15 minutes.
“The grief is there, always, but so is the beautiful gift of life,” she wrote.
