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Influencer Sara Bennett’s husband, Rusty Bennett, is continuing to honor his wife after her death following a battle with ALS.
“We’ve both been blessed. I’m really close with my family, and [Sara] has a great family and tons of friends,” Rusty told People in an interview published on Tuesday, January 20. “Everybody’s definitely reached out and [is] doing their best to help.”
Sara, who had more than 114,000 followers on Instagram, began showing symptoms in spring 2022. She received an official diagnosis with ALS in March 2023. At the time, Rusty explained that her care team determined she had a two to five-year prognosis window.
Rusty took leave from his consulting job in March 2025 to be Sara’s full-time caretaker. Rusty explained that they didn’t expect Sara to live long into the fall, and prepared their children — sons Lincoln, 9, and Will, 7 — with the reality that they might not have a family Halloween costume.
“We just had to be honest. Then we could say, ‘Hey, we’re not buying mom a Halloween costume because she’s not going to be here.’ And it helped them,” he said. “It was [the] worst conversation I’ve had to have my entire life, and they handled it way better than us.”
Sara lived through the holidays, which Rusty said he called the “bonus time.”
“It was awesome. We got to watch the ball drop. We all did it. We let the kids stay up until midnight this year, so they were thrilled. [Sara] was in our primary bedroom; she wasn’t really able to go anywhere for the last couple months, but we just partied right there in the bedroom,” he said.
He continued, “It was unexpected and quite wonderful to even have her there. The kids went to bed, and we had to do our nighttime routine to get her to bed, and it was just like, ‘Wow. It’s 2026. You made it.’”
Sara announced her own death at age 39 earlier this month, sharing a post on January 13. She asked her followers for donations to the 529 College Fund accounts for the pair’s sons.
“I am not in pain, or tired. I can laugh, talk and I can move. Reflecting in my last few months of my life, I am glad I didn’t go suddenly even WITH the suffering. I finished my list,” she wrote. “Even if you don’t believe in anything, I am feeding the earth, and my tree. I loved this life, and am grateful for the time.”
Rusty, for his part, praised his wife’s content creation and admired her decision to be candid with her online community.
“She just felt really strongly that she wanted to show people what the daily looks like — that it’s hard and that it’s tough on you and it’s tough on the people around you, but also, here’s where you find joy and here’s how you do that,” Rusty said.
Rusty continued, “Social media is what it is. It can be a wonderful place. It can get a really bad rap, and it can be a dark place. And in a world where sometimes maybe you see some of the parts of what you don’t like, it is so lovely to go out that way: connection. Sara being able to connect, not only for herself to learn and to gain knowledge, but for her to spread it out … It’s nice to get all of that stuff out there in the hopes that somebody can see it and use it.”
