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On Monday, February 24, Vanessa Bryant stood at the center of her late husband, Kobe Bryant ’s home, the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Despite suffering the tragic loss of her life partner and daughter, Gianna, Vanessa gathered herself of strength and spoke beautiful words of each during their memorial. Following a tearful speech about her mambacita, the mom-of-four went on to speak about her husband and their incomparable love. In her emotional speech, Vanessa shared how she couldn’t see him as a celebrity.
"He was mine. He was my everything. Kobe and I had been together since I was 17.5 years old,” she said. “I was his first girlfriend, his first love, his wife, his best friend, his confidante and his protector. He was the most amazing husband.”
“We really had an amazing love story. We loved each other with our whole beings, two perfectly imperfect people making a beautiful family and raising our sweet and amazing girls.”
Vanessa confessed he was the romantic one in their relationship. “I looked forward to Valentine's Day and our anniversaries every year,” she said. “He planned special anniversary trips and a special traditional gift for every year of our marriage. He even handmade my most treasured gifts.”
The 37-year-old told of the sweet time Kobe gifted her the actual notebook and the blue dress Rachel McAdams wore in The Notebook. “When I asked him why he chose the blue dress, he said it was because the scene when Ali comes back to Noah.”
The loving momma added the basketball star loved watching “the typical tearjerker” movies. “He liked watching Stepmom, Steel Magnolias and Little Women. He had a tender heart,” she said.
As the father of four girls, Vanessa said: “Kobe was the M.V.P. of girl dads, or M.V.D. He never left the toilet seat up. He always told the girls how beautiful and smart they are. He taught them how to be brave, how to keep pushing forward when things get tough.”
“I want my daughters to know the amazing person, husband and father he was. The kind of man that wanted to teach the future generations to be better and keep them from making his own mistakes
In tears, Vanessa concluded her speech with: “God knew they couldn't be on this Earth without each other. He had to bring them home to have them together. Babe, you take care of our Gigi. I got Nata, Bebe and KoKo. We love and miss you, boo and Gigi. May you both rest in peace, have fun in heaven until we meet again one day. We love you both and miss you forever and always. Mommy."