Erika Kirk has honored her late husband and Turning Point USA founder, Charlie, with a social media post commemorating the first Valentine's Day after his murder.
In an Instagram post Friday night, Erika, 37, shared a handwritten note from Charlie, who was shot and killed Sept. 10 on the Utah Valley University campus while debating with students about his American comeback route. Her photo also shows the hand of one of her two children with the late conservative activist.
“What I wouldn't give for one more love letter… They had such a deep reverence for them,” Erika wrote in the caption of the post. “You intentionally set aside the noise of the world and gave me words that seemed sacred and filled with a deep love that neither of us could fully articulate.
“Now I read it all even slower. And as I read your words, the weight on my heart reminds me of the reality that we were never promised gray hair and rocking chairs even though we assumed it was guaranteed,” he continued. “But my goodness, I love telling babies about the fullness of our covenant that left a mark on my soul. My favorite love story.”
He advised his followers to “honor the Sabbath this weekend with your loved ones” and write love letters to their loved ones.
“A letter like this may seem trivial, but you never know the direction life will take, if the Lord calls you home, even in your absence, as they reflect your words, your love still serves them,” he wrote before ending with the caption: “I love you Charlie baby, you will always be my Valentine.”
Erika's photo revealed part of the letter Charlie sent her, which read in part: “I love you so much and I can't wait to see what adventures await us.”
The two married in 2021 and welcomed a daughter in August 2022 and a son in May 2024. She has said publicly that she was “praying to God” to be pregnant when her husband was killed, as they had planned to have four children together.
In a November interview with Megyn Kelly, Erika said she and Charlie were “really excited to expand our family.”
“I thought, 'Oh my God, that was going to be the biggest blessing of this catastrophe,'” she added of having another baby.
Erika, who became CEO of TPUSA after Charlie's death, encouraged young couples not to wait to have children.
“Especially if you're a young woman, don't put it off. You can always have a career, you can always go back to work. You can never just have kids again,” she said.
“And they grow so fast and so quickly. I was just praying. We both were.”
