By Isabella Torregiani
12:20pm PST, Feb 17, 2026
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Nearly five months after the death of her husband, conservative influencer
Charlie Kirk,
Erika Kirk is marking her first Valentine's Day without him.
Keep reading to see how she celebrated the day…MORE:
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"What I would give for one more love letter. … They had such a deep reverence about them," Erika Kirk, 37, captioned
an Instagram post on Saturday, February 14, sharing a photo of a letter from Charlie Kirk before he died.
"You'd intentionally set aside the noise of the world and hand me words that felt sacred filled with a depth of love both of us could never quite articulate," she continued.
"I read it all even slower now. And as I read your words, the weight on my heart reminds me of a reality that we were never promised gray hair and rocking chairs even though we assumed it was guaranteed. But my goodness, do I love telling the babies about the fullness of our covenant that left a mark on my soul. My favorite love story," the mother of two added.
She signed off with a loving message to her late husband: "I love you Charlie baby, you will always be my Valentine," she wrote.
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In September 2025, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an appearance at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
"It's with a heavy heart that we, the Turning Point USA leadership team, write to notify you that early this afternoon, Charlie went to his eternal reward with Jesus Christ in heaven," Turning Point USA shared at the time, confirming the political activist's death.
Following a 33-hour manhunt, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson surrendered to authorities at his parents' request.
He was arrested and charged with allegedly killing Charlie and is being held without bail in a Utah jail. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.
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After her husband died, Erika Kirk took over as CEO of Turning Point USA, the conservative nonprofit Charlie Kirk co-founded in 2012 with Bill Montgomery.
She has also faced criticism for how she mourns Charlie in public, from elaborate pyrotechnic memorials to a controversial hug with Vice President J.D. Vance, which some viewers found unusually intimate. She emphasizes, however, that everyone experiences grief differently.
"There is no linear blueprint for grief. One day you're collapsed on the floor crying out the name Jesus in between labored breaths," Erika wrote on Instagram in October 2025.
"The next you're playing with your children in the living rooms surrounded by family photos, and feeling a rush of something you can only attempt to define as divinely planted and bittersweet joy as a smile breaks through your face," she continued.
"They say time heals. But love doesn't ask to be healed. Love asks to be remembered. It's humbling to realize that this magnitude of suffering didn't steal my love for my husband. It amplified it. It crystallized it," she added.
