Facebook's Sandberg opens up about husband's death, urges graduates to be resilient

BERKELEY, CA (WTXF/AP) - In a powerful speech, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg encouraged graduating seniors at the University of California, Berkeley to persevere in life's challenging times.

Sandberg, who lost her husband in an accident last year, addressed 4,700 graduation seniors over the weekend, speaking publicly for the first time about her husband's death.

Sandberg said that for many months after her husband, Dave Goldberg, died in a treadmill accident while on vacation in Mexico, she was "swallowed up in the deep fog of grief."

But she said losing her husband helped her find deeper gratitude for the kindness of her friends, the love of her family and the laughter of her children.

She encouraged UC Berkeley's graduating seniors to build resilience in themselves, their places of work and their communities.

Resilience, she said, is "like a muscle, you can build it up, draw on it when you need it. In that process you will figure out who you really are -- and you just might become the very best version of yourself."

Sandberg said that when tragedy strikes, "know that you have the ability to go through absolutely anything."