Samantha Busch is finding comfort where she can in the weeks following her husband former NASCAR driver Kyle Busch’s surprising death.
“One of the greatest gifts these past few weeks has been hearing people’s stories about Kyle,” Samantha, 40, wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, June 16. “Every memory, photo, and message has helped me feel connected to Kyle in ways I can’t fully explain and made me want to share some moments that brought me comfort over these unimaginably hard weeks.”
Kyle died on May 21 at age 41, just days before he was supposed to participate in a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. A death certificate obtained by Us Weekly confirmed his family’s statement that he died after battling pneumonia, which progressed to sepsis.
In addition to Samantha, he is survived by son Brexton, 11, and daughter Lennix, 4. His last Instagram post before his death was a celebration of Brexton’s birthday.
“After Brexton’s birthday party, Kyle had kicked off his sandals in our bathroom, and we never moved them,” Samantha continued. “About a week after he passed, I had one of the hardest nights yet…I finally gave up on sleeping and walked into our bathroom. There, shining directly across Kyle’s sandals, was a rainbow. Not anywhere else in the bathroom, just across his sandals. I literally laid down on them and felt a bit of peace, like he was giving me a sign.”
Samantha added that even though she understood the science behind the rainbow, she had never seen one in that room before.
“The second moment happened at our church,” she wrote. “A bird was flying around during the entire service. At one point, it flew over to where I was sitting, tilted its head sideways, looked right at me, and then flew away. I immediately looked at my friend and asked, ‘Am I hallucinating? I haven’t been sleeping.’ She said, ‘Nope. I see it too.’”
The bird returned later while everyone was praying. Samantha said she heard a noise that she believed to be someone’s phone until she opened her eyes and saw the bird by her feet.
“I know some people will say it was just a bird and just a rainbow,” she said. “Maybe they’re right. But standing in the same church where we said goodbye to Kyle a few days earlier, and carrying a grief that still doesn’t feel real most days, it felt like more than a coincidence to me.
It feels like God is reminding me that I’m not alone and that Kyle is letting me know he’s OK, that he’s close, and that somehow he’s still walking beside us.”
