One year after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Erika Kirk has opened up about what she did the day after her husband’s murder and the advice she received from the second lady that helped her survive the first days of grief. In an essay marking her first year as a widow, Erika Kirk remembered her children running into her arms after she arrived home in Phoenix from Utah on Sept. 11, 2025.
The mother also recalled walking through the front door and feeling a tightening in her chest that she had never experienced 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,” Erika Kirk wrote.
Earlier that day, the wife and widow of the Turning Point USA founder had received advice from second lady Usha Vance that would leave a lasting impression on her heart. Erika Kirk said she confided in Vance that she did not know how she was going to do this. The second lady responded by describing what it is like to fly with children during the final 15 minutes before landing.
The children may be screaming and throwing things, she explained, but once the plane lands, the chaos settles. “That’s how it will be. Just get through the next 15 minutes,” Usha Vance told the grieving widow and mother. Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025.
One year later, the case against Tyler Robinson, who is accused of killing the conservative activist, is moving toward trial after a Utah judge ruled that prosecutors had established probable cause for the case to proceed.