<\/p>\n
Katherine Heigl is sharing a reflection on grief as she mourns the loss of her former \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d co-star Eric Dane.<\/p>\n
Dane passed away<\/a>\u00a0at the age of 53 on Feb. 19 following a battle with ALS.<\/p>\n While playing the role of Dr. Izzie Stevens on \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy,\u201d Heigl got to know Dane, who played Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McSteamy.<\/p>\n In a post shared to her\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>page, Heigl said she was hesitant to speak out publicly about his death at first.<\/p>\n \u201cI debated this post for days. I have never been comfortable grieving publicly. I share my tears, my stories and my memories with those I\u2019m closest to and more times than not I share them only with the heavens alone. But that silence can often look like a lack of care which I could not abide here,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Heigl addressed\u00a0Dane’s wife, Rebecca Gayheart<\/a>, and\u00a0their two daughters<\/a>\u00a0directly in the post, acknowledging that there\u2019s only so much one can say in the wake of loss.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the \u2018I\u2019m sorries\u2019 and \u2018my prayers are with you\u2019 ring a bit hollow in the midst of so much pain and grief. So I will say the only thing that has ever brought me peace when I\u2019ve lost someone I love,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Heigl quoted the Robert Frost poem \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay,\u201d and said that she has the poem tattooed on her body in her parents\u2019 handwriting so she will \u201cnever forget that the moment of gold was worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Nature\u2019s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf\u2019s a flower; but only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, so Dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay,\u2019\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Heigl then brought the poem\u2019s message back to her experience working with Dane on the set of the ABC medical drama.<\/p>\n \u201cI will never forget Eric\u2019s gold and I will forever be grateful I got to bask in it for even a brief moment in time. Thank you for sharing him with us,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n The 47-year-old ended her tribute by speaking directly to her late co-star.<\/p>\n \u201cGod Speed my old friend\u2026here\u2019s to your next great adventure,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Heigl joins several of Dane\u2019s co-stars who have paid tribute to the late actor after his death. Patrick Dempsey, who played Dr. Derek \u201cMcDreamy\u201d Shepherd on the show,\u00a0spoke to Dane\u2019s passing\u00a0<\/a>while appearing on Britain\u2019s \u201cThe Chris Evans Breakfast Show.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it\u2019s hard to put into words. I feel really so sad for his children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Dempsey spoke about Dane\u2019s \u201cgreat sense of humor\u201d as an actor and co-star and said they \u201cgot along instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n The actor also applauded the work Dane did advocating for awareness of ALS.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real loss is for us who don\u2019t have him any more,\u201d he said. \u201cHe did an incredible job at\u00a0bringing awareness to this horrible disease<\/a>\u00a0and those remaining days, which was really brave of him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn his final interview for Netflix’s “Famous Last Words,” taped two months before his passing, Eric Dane delivered an emotional message to his teenage girls Billie and Georgia, whom he shared with Rebecca Gayheart.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n