'I Think About Him All the Time' (Exclusive): Savannah Guthrie on Her 'Deep and Complicated' Dad She Lost at 16

The 'Mostly What God Does' author tells PEOPLE that the sudden death of her father Charles Guthrie "cracked open our family and crushed us" but her "faith" gave her "hope"

Savannah Guthrie still holds the fondest memories of her late, Charles Guthrie, after all these years.

"My father died when I was 16.I think about him all the time," the Today show co-anchor, 52, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "He was deep and complicated, and he didn't talk to us like little kids. He told us things that I didn't understand at the time but later would remember, long after he died."

"I feel almost like he knew or God knew, he needs to give me this wisdom," she continues. "She can't understand it now, but it's going to preserve it for the ages. It's going to be such an interesting and unusual, and strange thing that he says, that I'll remember it. And years later, it will be like a gift I unwrap. 'Oh, that's what he meant. Oh, now I understand.'"

Guthrie's dad died of a sudden heart attack when she was a teenager. To honor his memory, she named her now-7-year-old son, Charley, after him.

The broadcaster says her father "spent so much time with us and he took us so seriously," making his death that much harder to grapple with.

"The loss of my father was shocking and devastating. It cracked open our family and crushed us," she explains. "He was our center. We just idealized him and adored him. He was larger than life, and funny, and charming, and adorable. His loss was so sudden and so shocking."

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Guthrie's grieving process is detailed at length in her new faith-based book, Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere. In the book, she opens up about the trials and tribulations she's endured over the years — and notes how her belief in God helped her through it all.

"What I write about in the book is processing that grief and processing the fact of losing my dad at the age of 16, after years and years. And through faith, starting to try to understand it in a larger sense and in larger terms, and in God's terms," she shares.

"It's kind of hard to put it into words, because it's not about a sense of peace, it's just a sense of acceptance and trust that God knows what he's doing and that he does have a plan," she adds. "In that moment, that plan can be shocking and devastating and earth-shattering. My father's death was all of those things for me and for my family. But that over time, with the healing of time, but mostly with the grace of God, you can kind of come to terms and come to understand. And through faith, believe not only that God knows what he's doing, that death is not his plan, but that through faith, we have hope."

Savannah Guthrie's book,Mostly What God Does,is available wherever books are sold.

For more on Savannah Guthrie, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday, or subscribehere.

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