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Kathie Lee Gifford Tweets About ‘Brokenhearted’ On First Christmas Since Frank Gifford’s Death

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 04:46 PST, Dec 24, 2015

Kathie Lee Gifford is trying to celebrate Christmas with as much normalcy as possible, but it is a bit hard when it is your first as a widow.

On Thursday, December 24 (Christmas Eve), Gifford took to Twitter to share a scripture from the book of Psalms, which talked about the “brokenhearted” and those who are “crushed in spirit.”

She tweeted, “You, LORD, are close to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit. Ps 34:18. I’m praying for all of you who need His love.”

Kathie’s husband, Frank Gifford, a Hall of Fame football player and broadcaster, passed away in August at the age of 84. At the time, his family released a statement explaining that Frank had died suddenly of natural causes. Along with Kathie, Frank was survived by their two children, Cody and Cassidy, as well as his three children from his first marriage to Maxine Avis Ewart, Jeff, Kyle and Victoria, and five grandchildren.

“It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and friend, Frank Gifford,” the Gifford family said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight. “Frank died suddenly this beautiful Sunday morning of natural causes at his Connecticut home.”

“We rejoice in the extraordinary life he was privileged to live, and we feel grateful and blessed to have been loved by such an amazing human being. We ask that our privacy be respected at this difficult time and we thank you for your prayers,” the statement continued.

Kathie later made the tough decision to return to her position as a host on the Today show. On her first day back, she paid tribute to her late husband, explaining that his faith was a huge part of his life and hers as well.

“As a young child, Frank asked Jesus into his heart and that remained with him for the rest of his life,” the 62-year-old talk show host said at the time. “He strayed from his faith on occasion, but his faith never left him, and especially after we found each other and started sharing our faith together, it became more and more and more important to Frank.”

“His world got smaller as his God got bigger, and he’d want you to know that he died in complete peace,” she added. “He knew every sin that he ever committed was forgiven. He had that hope that he would be with the Lord, and that we would be someday with him as well.”

In November, the Gifford family released an additional statement, revealing that they had agreed to allow doctors to study Frank’s brain in hopes of contributing to medical research. The researchers confirmed that Frank died of natural causes and also found that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is a degenerative brain disease that affects people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries, according to Protectthebrain.org.

“After losing our beloved husband and father, Frank Gifford, we as a family made the difficult decision to have his brain studied in hopes of contributing to the advancement of medical research concerning the link between football and traumatic brain injury,” the statement read. “We miss him every day, now more than ever, but find comfort in knowing that by disclosing his condition we might contribute positively to the ongoing conversation that needs to be had.”

Although she is still grieving the loss of her husband, Kathie Lee Gifford said she rejoices in the fact that he is in heaven with Jesus, and that she will get to join him again some day, E! News reports.

Gifford added, “People don’t understand that you can rejoice and grieve at the same time. I rejoice that my husband is there in a beautiful place and I miss him.”

[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images]

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