The widow of singer Chris Cornell has opened up about how she continues to grieve four years after his death – and shared a love note he wrote for her.
“In a way it is worse now,” Vicky Cornell told Fatherly. “In the beginning, you have the false sense that he may come back or that you will wake up from the nightmare, there is also a survival mode that kicks in then. But now, the reality has set in that this is forever.”
The Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman took his life in May 2017 at 52, leaving behind Vicky and their two young children, as well as a daughter from his first marriage.
Vicky said the couple’s children help her cope with the loss. “My children are my light. They are my reason and my whole world,” she explained. “Watching them grow up, finding happiness and their own passions fills my heart and soul — I know Chris would be so proud of the young adults they are turning into.
“They are both so much like him in different ways — I see him in them every single day.”
Vicky also shared a handwritten note from her late husband:
“I write this with the quivering hand that is guided by the fortunes of a heart lucky enough to know true love. My heart is a beating drum and my voice a clanging bell sound to the world, ‘I love you. Be mine in joy lit only by the glow of our shining love! I love you so!”