Page 41 - People (February 2020)

In the nearly two weeks since Kobe Bryant, his
13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were
killed in a Jan. 26 helicopter crash, tearful tributes
have been unfurled around the country: from cen-
ter court at the Los Angeles Lakers game, where
Usher sang an emotional rendition of “Amazing
Grace,” to the 24-yard line at Super Bowl LIV,
where players lined up for a pregame moment of
silence, to even the Lower Merion High School
gym outside Philadelphia, where Kobe’s once-
stolen high school jersey, No. 33, was finally
returned and mournfully showcased under a sin-

gle spotlight. “We’re all grieving. We’re all hurting.
We’re all heartbroken,” a teary LeBron James, Tokens f
o
wearing Kobe’s retired No. 24 jersey, told the Heartbreak
While letters,
hushed, sold-out crowd at the Lakers’ home game grieve together and comfort each other” are being
stuffed animals
inside L.A.’s Staples Center on Jan. 31. But against planned. For Vanessa’s part, she says she’s focus- and memorabilia
the thoughtfully rendered sentiments of friends ing on gratitude for all that she had in Kobe and left outside the
Staples Center
and strangers alike, Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, Gianna: “I’m not sure what our lives hold beyond
will go to the
walked an intensely personal tightrope of devasta- today, and it’s impossible to imagine life without Bryant family,
tion—for herself and her three surviving daughters: them. But we wake up each day trying to keep Vanessa set up
MambaOnThree
Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months. Vanes- pushing, because Kobe and our baby girl Gigi are
.org for donations
sa “appreciates every effort that people have given shining on us to light the way. Our love for them is to the other crash
to remember her husband and daughter,” says a endless—and that’s to say immeasurable.” victims’ families.
source close to her. “But she doesn’t spend a lot of
time seeing what’s being said publicly. Her grief is B y S A N D R A S O B I E R A J W E S T F A L L .
private, and it’s her own, and it sometimes doesn’t R e p o r t i n g b y K . C . B A K E R , J A S O N D U A I N E
help to see other people who are upset. . . . She’s wor- H A H N a n d S T E V E H E L L I N G
ried about her girls, worried about what happens
next. She now has to be the strong one.”

As the whole world wondered at the depths of
her grief after such unthinkable loss, Vanessa her-
self took to Instagram three days after the tragedy.
“Thank you for all the prayers. We definitely need
them. . . . There aren’t enough words to describe
our pain right now,” she wrote. Remembering the
others who died on the flight to Gianna’s basket-
ball game—the pilot, coaches, teammates and their
family members—Vanessa announced that she
had established a fund (MambaOnThree.org) to
help support their shattered families. “We share Loving Honors

their grief intimately,” she said. The Lakers’
Meanwhile the investigation into why Kobe’s game on Jan. 31
featured a tribute
Sikorsky S-76B luxury helicopter crashed into a by LeBron James
Calabasas, Calif., hillside continues. A spokesman (above right)
for the National Transportation Safety Board says and was attended
by Gianna’s
a preliminary report is due any day, but it could be teammates from
up to 18 months before the NTSB makes a deter- the Mamba
mination on the cause of the crash. Sports Academy,
while her No. 2
As for services laying Kobe and Gianna to Mamba jersey
rest, the source says that both a public memori- sat courtside
al—“probably at the Staples Center, so that fans beside her dad’s
No. 24 jersey.
and those who love Kobe can say goodbye and
honor him”—and a private one “for the family to

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HANS GUTKNECHT/ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER/ZUMA WIRE; ALLEN BEREZOVSKY/GETTY IMAGES; ELSA/GETTY IMAGES