'Tu Papi:' Vanessa Bryant Discovers Letter Written To Her By Kobe Before His Death
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Vanessa Bryant revealed Tuesday that she discovered a letter which was penned to her by her late husband, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, prior to his death in a January helicopter crash.
Bryant said she discovered the letter on Monday.
"Yesterday I found an envelope labeled To: The Love of my Life. From, Tu Papi," she wrote on Instagram.
Bryant chose to open the card Tuesday, her 38th birthday.
"I waited to open one more letter on my birthday," she wrote. "It gave me something to look forward to today."
She didn't reveal the contents of the letter, but did describe what was on the envelope.
"The irony is that Kobe had a photo of me drawn with an Angel holding me up by an artist on the cover."
On the morning of Jan. 26, Kobe, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed when the helicopter they were riding in crashed in the Calabasas hills amid heavy fog.
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.
Kobe and Vanessa were married for more than 18 years and had four daughters. Gianna, who Vanessa nicknamed Mamacita, would have turned 14 on May 1.
"Missing the Love of my Life and my sweet little Mamacita- my fellow Taurus. Grateful to wake up to my 3 sweet girls today," she wrote Tuesday. "Wish we were all together."
