Katherine Heigl ‘Debated’ Posting a Tribute to Eric Dane ‘For Days’

Katherine Heigl is sharing a reflection on grief as she mourns the loss of her former “Grey’s Anatomy” co-star Eric Dane.

Dane passed away at the age of 53 on Feb. 19 following a battle with ALS.

While playing the role of Dr. Izzie Stevens on “Grey’s Anatomy,” Heigl got to know Dane, who played Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McSteamy.

In a post shared to her Facebook page, Heigl said she was hesitant to speak out publicly about his death at first.

“I debated this post for days. I have never been comfortable grieving publicly. I share my tears, my stories and my memories with those I’m 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,” she wrote.

Heigl addressed Dane’s wife, Rebecca Gayheart, and their two daughters directly in the post, acknowledging that there’s only so much one can say in the wake of loss.

“All the ‘I’m sorries’ and ‘my prayers are with you’ 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’ve lost someone I love,” she wrote.

Heigl quoted the Robert Frost poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” and said that she has the poem tattooed on her body in her parents’ handwriting so she will “never forget that the moment of gold was worth it.”

“‘Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s 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,’” she wrote.

Heigl then brought the poem’s message back to her experience working with Dane on the set of the ABC medical drama.

“I will never forget Eric’s 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,” she wrote.

The 47-year-old ended her tribute by speaking directly to her late co-star.

“God Speed my old friend…here’s to your next great adventure,” she wrote.

Heigl joins several of Dane’s co-stars who have paid tribute to the late actor after his death. Patrick Dempsey, who played Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on the show, spoke to Dane’s passing while appearing on Britain’s “The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.”

“Yeah, it’s hard to put into words. I feel really so sad for his children,” he said.

Dempsey spoke about Dane’s “great sense of humor” as an actor and co-star and said they “got along instantly.”

The actor also applauded the work Dane did advocating for awareness of ALS.

“The real loss is for us who don’t have him any more,” he said. “He did an incredible job at bringing awareness to this horrible disease and those remaining days, which was really brave of him to do.”