Erika Kirk has opened up about the devastating final moments before her husband, Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA,

was assassinated earlier this month. In an emotional interview with The New York Times, she shared

the last text she sent him the morning he left for Provo, Utah, to begin a campus tour: “I love you.”

Charlie, 31, was fatally shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University. Erika recalled hearing him

in the kitchen before dawn, excited to finally start his tour after months of waiting. Because he left early,

she didn’t kiss him goodbye—her message became her last words to him.

Mid-flight to Utah, Erika learned of his death. Gazing at clouds and mountains, she thought,

“This is exactly what he last saw.” At the hospital, she was advised not to view his body due to the gunshot’s damage. She insisted.

His eyes were semi-open, with what she described as a “Mona Lisa-like half-smile—like he’d died happy, like Jesus rescued him.”

Since the tragedy, Erika has leaned on her Christian faith. Asked if she wanted the shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson,

to face the death penalty, she replied: “I do not want this man’s blood on my ledger.” Her final words,

“I love you,” now serve as a promise to carry Charlie’s memory forward through faith and resilience.