NEED TO KNOW
Shay Martin participated in the viral “candy salad” trend — where a group of people each bring a different kind of candy and mix them all in a bowl — alongside several other widows
The influencer’s husband Tanner died in June after a five-year journey with colon cancer
“We cry together and laugh together. We support each other and cheer one another on!” wrote Shay of her friends who are widows
Shay Martin is finding a moment of levity after her husband Tanner’s death in June.
On Nov. 13, the 29-year-old content creator shared a video to Instagram, participating in the viral “candy salad” trend — where a group of people each bring a different kind of candy and mix them all in a bowl — alongside several other widows.
In the clip, each widow shared an anecdote about their late husbands and then revealed what kind of candy they brought before dumping it into the bowl.
“My name is Shay. My husband Tanner died four months ago, and I had a 6-week-old baby, and unknowingly, Tanner had set up a GoFundMe, and people said, ‘I don’t know why you think you deserve that,’ ” she said, opening the video.
The other widows in attendance proceeded, sharing stories from their own husbands’ deaths.
Shay Martin/Instagram
Shay and Tanner Martin
“Having people that GET IT is so healing,” wrote Shay in the caption. “We cry together and laugh together. We support each other and cheer one another on!”
Tanner announced his own death in a pre-recorded video message shared on social media, after documenting his five-year journey with colon cancer. His death came just over a month after the pair welcomed their first child, daughter AmyLou.
In October, Shay opened up about their decision to get pregnant amid Tanner’s cancer journey during a conversation on Matt and Abby Howard’s The Unplanned Podcast.
“He really, really wanted to be a dad,” Shay said of her late husband on the Oct. 1 episode. “And I had always wanted to have a family. So, at that point, we were like, ‘Alright, let’s have a kid.’ ”
Before he first started undergoing cancer treatment in 2020, doctors recommended that Tanner bank his sperm in case the treatments caused him to become infertile. Though they planned to do an egg retrieval and embryo transfer in September 2023, they held off when Tanner got sepsis, not wanting to have a newborn while Tanner was in hospice care.
In July 2024, as it appeared Tanner’s treatments were working, they tried for a kid and had AmyLou in May 2025.
Shay Martin/Instagram
Shay and Tanner Martin
“We were already pregnant,” said Shay. “And then Tanner’s treatment stopped working.”
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He died in June after spending just 41 days with his daughter.
Since Tanner’s death, Shay has opened up to her following of over 592,000 on Instagram about her life as a widow. Last month, during her first Halloween after Tanner’s death, she filmed a “get ready with me” video in which she said she was in her “transformation widow era.”
“Sometimes people expect you to stay the same and not change at all, but when you lose your best friend in the whole world, your partner, your spouse, your lover, how can you stay the same and not change?” she reflected.
“When I’m moving forward, it’s not a reset,” continued the creator. “When I am moving into this next chapter, I’m never leaving behind my story, or Tanner, or my love for him. That’s gonna continue out through my whole life.”
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.style.yahoo.com ’
