The pain of Bob Saget's sudden death still feels so fresh for wife Kelly Rizzo.
"When I think about the fact that I haven't talked to or seen my husband in a year," an emotional Rizzo said on the Dec. 29 episode of the Today Show, "that's very surreal and very, very strange."
In the year since Saget, 65, was found dead in a Florida hotel room is wife of four years has learned to lean on his daughters Aubrey, 35, Lara, 33, and Jennifer, 30 with his first wife Sherri Kramer have been a big source of support and comfort for Kelly.
"The three of them are just everything to me because they were everything to him," she said of his kids with ex-wife Sherri Kramer, "and so keeping them close really is everything."
Over the past 12 months, Kelly, 43, has shared a raw and emotional look at her grief process on her Instagram in the hopes that it will help others who are grieving.
"This is having some sort of impact on people who have gone through something similar," she continued, "and now it's just given me this whole new sense of purpose and life to be able to share this."
Now, after a year without the comedian, the Eat Travel Rock host has a new perspective.
"The missing him and the being sad about it doesn't go away," Rizzo shared, "but the grief now has really morphed into just this tremendous gratitude for the time that we had together."
And she's found some comfort—and a way forward—by living her life like her late husband. Especially in the kitchen.
"He was always my biggest fan," Rizzo said. "He loved all the videos and so I feel like now it's kind of another way to honor him."
She'll keep doing just that. "When I look at the beginning of the year, of course I'm like, 'This is the worst thing I've ever gone through," she said. "But then I'm also really trying to take from it what you can do to turn this into a positive experience because Bob did that. He had so much loss in his life, and he turned everything into a positive, reflective experience. If he did that, then I want to use this experience in the same way."
On Jan. 9, Saget—who was on a stand-up comedy tour—was found dead in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida. His cause of death was later revealed as accidental blunt head trauma. No drugs or alcohol were involved.
"As we continue to mourn together," his family said in a February statement, "we ask everyone to remember the love and laughter that Bob brought to this world, and the lessons he taught us all: to be kind to everyone, to let the people you love know you love them, and to face difficult times with hugs and laughter."