Husband speaks out after late wife's goodbye video goes viral
Husband speaks out after late wife's goodbye video goes viral
Sarah Mandel's final TikTok video has garnered over 2 million views.
ByYi-Jin Yu
July 3, 2024, 4:08 AM
Sarah Mandel had one final video shared to her TikTok account following her death on June 1. The nearly two-minutelong video has since gone viral.Courtesy of Mandel and Rodenhausen Families
After Sarah Mandel died earlier this year, the former therapist and author had her death announced in a TikTok video that has since gone viral, picking up over 2.6 million views in the month since it was posted.
In the nearly two-minute montage of video clips and photos, Mandel is seen celebrating her 42nd birthday by making a wish and blowing out a candle, doing yoga in a hospital room, holding a copy of her memoir "Little Earthquakes," singing with one of her two daughters and more.
Sarah Mandel had one final video shared to her TikTok account following her death on June 1. The nearly two-minutelong video has since gone viral.Courtesy of Mandel and Rodenhausen Families
"If you're reading these words right now, then I have died," Mandel's message began in text overlaid on the video. "I wrote this message the week I was told I had weeks to months to live."
"Only a year ago, I never in a million years would have thought I would want my death announced on social media," her message continued.
Mandel then shared how she found a supportive community on TikTok in "the toughest days" of her cancer journey and thanked others for "holding [her] hand."
Sarah Mandel was diagnosed in 2017 with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She died on June 1, 2024.Courtesy of Mandel and Rodenhausen Families
"I am heartbroken that I am leaving this life well before my plans, most of all because of my girls and my beloved Derek," she wrote, referring to her husband.
She shared a heartfelt "I love you" to her daughters Sophie and Siena and ended her video with a clip of herself reading from her memoir: "We are creatures who crave certainty -- but life, it turns out, is a study in uncertainty."
Editor’s Picks
Family member speaks out after veteran comes out as gay in obituary
After daughter's suicide, dad encourages others to 'help at least one person'
'Let go of the insignificant things': Teacher writes own obit before dying of cancer
Mandel's husband, Derek Rodenhausen, told "Good Morning America" that his late wife's video came as a surprise.
"It was just so loving and beautiful and kind of just amazing… but it was kind of like, 'Wow, Sarah,' doing that in that moment, it was crazy," the 42-year-old recalled.
Sarah Mandel and Derek Rodenhausen first met in 2002 as students at Bard College in New York. The couple married in August 2010.Courtesy of Mandel and Rodenhausen Families
Husband of former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader who died after stillbirth speaks out on his loss, lingering questions
Rodenhausen explained that his late wife was diagnosed in 2017 with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer while pregnant with their second daughter Siena. He said there were highs and lows during her six-year battle with cancer, from learning she had no evidence of disease at one point to learning the cancer had not only returned but spread to multiple areas.
Throughout the process, Rodenhausen said Mandel wanted to share her deeply personal experience as a way to help others.
The late Sarah Mandel and her husband Derek Rodenhausen shared two children – daughters Sophie and Siena.Courtesy of Mandel and Rodenhausen Families
"I think she deeply felt that she wanted to help people," he said. "It can be [a] lonely experience to go through, having six and a half years of cancer battle, and I think what she found was that by being open about it, a lot of people would kind of then open up to her and share their experiences."
Husband speaks out about postpartum depression after wife dies by suicide
Rodenhausen said his wife turned to writing her memoir and later to social media to connect with others, especially after she decided to give up her psychology practice after her condition worsened.
"The thing that was important to her was she kind of wanted to be very transparent about what she was going through and make it real to the world, even things that, you know, sometimes, people can feel like they don't want to [share or are] embarrassed by or don't want to talk about," he said.
"It became a way to take this experience and make it less of a lonely, siloed experience but more of like a shared, whole community experience. And that I think was part of what made it really beautiful but also part of what gave her the belief that there's value in being and sharing," he added.