This may seem like a paradox to some, but Vanessa Bryant said it is the very people she lost on Jan. 26, 2020, her husband Kobe and her daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, who consistently recharge her spirit to push forward and rebuild her life.
Bryant admits, however, that there are some days where the pain is crippling, particularly when she retreats from the public eye and closes the door to her bedroom.
“This pain is unimaginable, [but] you just have to get up and push forward,” she told People magazine exclusively. “Lying in bed crying isn’t going to change the fact that my family will never be the same again. But getting out of bed and pushing forward is going to make the day better for my girls and for me. So that’s what I do.”
It seems apropos that Bryant would grace the cover of People‘s “Women Changing the World” issue during Women’s History Month after the strength she has exemplified in the 14 months since Kobe and Gigi died. The helicopter the Black Mamba chartered crashed into the mountains in Calabasas, California, also claiming the lives of seven other passengers.
Understandably, Bryant has her moments of weakness.
“I can’t say that I’m strong every day,” she told the entertainment magazine. “I can’t say that there aren’t days when I feel like I can’t survive to the next.”
At her core, it is the ones she lost who are her sources of strength to move forward to care for her surviving children — daughters Natalia, 18, Bianka, 4, and 20-month-old Capri.
“I guess the best way to describe it is that Kobe and Gigi motivate me to keep going,” she said. “They inspire me to try harder and be better every day. Their love is unconditional and they motivate me in so many different ways.”
