Trooper Chad Wolf's Widow Breaks Silence On Husband's Death, Recounts Hard Days, Faith That Gets Her Through

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Outgoing and gregarious, Michigan State Police trooper Chad Wolf never met a stranger.

"He had the ability, with the first time meeting you, making  you feel like he was your long-lost friend that you honestly had no idea you hadn't met yet," said his wife Erin Wolf in an exclusive interview with WWJ 950's Roberta Jasina.

That bright and hopeful message came home for Wolf in the worst possible way.

She was reminded of it at her husband's funeral.

Wolf was killed Aug. 28 when he was riding his motorcycle at about 6:30 a.m. on Dixie Highway and crossing over I-75, north of Detroit in Springfield Township. A 72-year-old in a car with a trailer collided with his motorcycle, snatching Wolf from it trapping him beneath the car.

Unknowingly, the driver of the car entered the freeway and drove north. He eventually stopped after pulling into a rest area north of Springfield Township.

Hundreds of people attended Wolf's funeral.

At the funeral, "one man in particular, he came up to me and he said, 'I had the privilege of meeting your husband two weeks ago, and I said 'Oh you did?'"

Erin Wolf, a teacher and mother of four, jokingly asked the man if her husband had pulled him over. "Yes," the man answered.

"That's not the response I was hoping to get," Wolf said, laughing. She asked if it was a good encounter, and it turned out that even though the man had spent less than two minutes with her husband, he was so struck with what a great man he was, he made the time to go to his funeral.

Erin Wolf met her husband at Pensacola Christian College, and ended up moving with him here where he wanted to join the Michigan State Police, which he considered the best of the best.

There were days Wolf worried about her husband, but said she prayed through it and wasn't super worried about him.

Has her faith been tested? "If I ever lost my faith in God, I would be a complete wreck," she said, adding she believes God is in control of everything and for whatever reason "this is how he chose to use Chad."

She says she has peace.

But some days the grief is overwhelming. On one day, in particular, she was desperate to spend time with someone so she wasn't alone with her deep feelings of loss, and a friend asked if she wanted to go to lunch. Erin Wolf calls that a "God story."

She cherishes the last few hours she had with her husband in the hospital, when she knew his time was short and officers lined the hallway, a show of sadness and solidarity. A friend sat with her and read Psalms.

Erin Wolf says it's the day that her life changed, but it wasn't the worst day of her life. "I have peace," she added.

His friends still send notes with little tales about her husband, and she focuses on positive things like that. She chooses not to become lonely or bitter.

"I got to live for 14 years with the most amazing man and I would rather have spent 14 years with the most amazing man than 50 with an average (man), and I have that to cling on to," she said.