Vanessa Bryant Posts Heartbreaking Message: 'My Brain Refuses To Accept That Both Kobe And Gigi Are Gone'
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Vanessa Bryant penned a heartbreaking message Monday discussing the grief she is processing over the deaths of her husband Kobe and daughter Gianna in last month's helicopter crash which also claimed the lives of seven others.
"I've been reluctant to put my feelings into words," she wrote on Instagram. "My brain refuses to accept that both Kobe and Gigi are gone. I can't process both at the same time. It's like I'm trying to process Kobe being gone but my body refuses to accept my Gigi will never come back to me. It feels wrong."
The post included a video Kobe coaching Gianna's basketball team.
Last week, Vanessa confirmed that a public "Celebration of Life" for Kobe and Gianna will be held at Staples Center on Monday, Feb. 24. Details about the event and how to purchase tickets have yet to be released.
On the morning of Jan. 26, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter carrying a 41-year-old Kobe, 13-year-old Gianna, two other teen girls, four parents and the pilot crashed in Calabasas amid foggy conditions.
The helicopter had departed from John Wayne Airport in Orange County and was bound for Camarillo, with the passengers on board heading to Kobe's Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, where he was set to coach Gianna in a tournament game.
In its preliminary report Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that there was no evidence the chopper's engines had failed prior to going down.