She will always have that smile. After country singer Craig Strickland's body was found on Monday, January 4, his wife, Helen Strickland, shared a video that he had created ahead of their 2014 nuptials.
"On the day of our wedding, Craig had me watch a video he had made to tell me how much he loved me," the grieving widow wrote on Instagram. "I am so thankful for technology in this moment because I will always have this. I watched this privately prior to walking down the aisle, and so now I want to share this small excerpt with all of you."
In the clip, Craig pours his heart out to the former Miss Arkansas USA. "There would be times when we're sitting in our car and stuff, and you don't notice," Craig says in the video. "But I'll look over and be like, 'This is the person that God has created for me' and that's really special to me. And I couldn't be more lucky."
His wife thanked their friend for helping her husband produce and edit the special message. "I will cherish it for ever," Helen wrote, adding a passage from the Bible that was helping her in her time of grieving. "'Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psalms 116:15,'" she shared. "Thank you Lord for sharing #craigstrickland with me. You allowed me to borrow him on this earth, but he was always Yours. I will forever cherish our year of marriage. This was truly the type of man you were and will always be remembered as. I love you Craig Michael."
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol confirmed to Us Weekly on Monday, January 4, that Craig, 29, was found dead earlier that morning. After a massive search mission, the Backroad Anthem singer's body was recovered in the Kaw Lake region north of Tulsa, Oklahoma, seven days after he was reported missing and nearly 10 days after he had embarked on a duck hunting trip with his friend Chase Morland.
Twenty-two-year-old Morland was found dead last Monday, December 28, and Helen later revealed that Craig's beloved 9-year-old dog, Sam, refused to leave his side until authorities recovered the body.
On Monday afternoon, Helen also shared details about her husband's final moments on earth. "The night of the accident he fought his way out of the water and up a hill before the stages of hypothermia set in," Helen captioned a pic with her husband on Instagram. "He experienced no pain in his final moments and simply felt like he was falling asleep. They found him lying in the shape of a cross looking up to his Father."
