Celebs

Vanessa Bryant Delivers Gigi Bryant’s Eulogy At Kobe’s Memorial

<p>One of the hardest things for any parent to do is to deliver their child’s eulogy…and sadly&comma; that’s exactly what <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;vanessa-bryant-posts-touching-valentines-tribute-to-kobe-on-instagram&sol;">Vanessa Bryant<&sol;a> had to do at Kobe Bryant’s and Gigi Bryant’s public memorial&period; It was a heartbreaking moment that showcases just how strong she is during such an unbelievably difficult time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Vanessa Bryant initially stepped up to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;cnn&period;com&sol;2020&sol;02&sol;24&sol;us&sol;kobe-bryant-memorial-vanessa-bryant-statement-trnd&sol;index&period;html">speak at the memorial<&sol;a> and quickly informed the audience that she would be speaking about her baby girl Gigi first—and then she would speak about &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the love of her life&comma;” Kobe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can read the FULL transcript of Vanessa Bryant’s eulogy for Gigi BELOW&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;My baby girl&period; Gianna Bryant is an amazingly sweet and gentle soul&period; She was very thoughtful and always kissed me good night and kissed me good morning&period; There were a few occasions where I was absolutely tired from being up with Bianka and Capri&comma; and I thought she had left to school without saying goodbye&period; I text and say&comma; &&num;8220&semi;No kiss&quest;&&num;8221&semi; And Gianna would reply with&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Mama&comma; I kissed you&period; You were asleep and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t want to wake you&period;&&num;8221&semi; She knew how much her morning and evening kisses meant to me&comma; and she was so thoughtful to remember to kiss me every day&period; She was daddy&&num;8217&semi;s girl&comma; but I know she loved her mama&comma; and she would always show me and tell me that she loved me&period; She was one of my very best friends&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>She loved to bake&period; She loved putting a smile on everyone&&num;8217&semi;s face&period; Last August she made a beautiful birthday cake for her daddy&comma; and it had fondant and looked like it had blue agate crystals&period; Kobe&&num;8217&semi;s birthday cake looked like it was professionally decorated&period; She made the best chocolate chip cookies&period; She loved watching cooking shows and &&num;8220&semi;Cupcake Wars&&num;8221&semi; with me&comma; and she loved watching &&num;8220&semi;Survivor&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;NBA on TNT&&num;8221&semi; with her daddy&period; She also loved watching Disney movies with her sisters&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>Gigi was very competitive like her daddy&comma; but she had a sweet grace about her&period; Her smile was like sunshine&period; Her smile took up her entire face&comma; like mine&period; Kobe always said she was me&period; She had my fire&comma; my personality and sarcasm&comma; and she was tender and loving on the inside&period; She had the best laugh&period; It was infectious&period; It was pure and genuine&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>Kobe and Gianna naturally gravitated towards each other&period; She had Kobe&&num;8217&semi;s ability to listen to a song and have all the lyrics memorized after listening to the song a couple of times&semi; it was their secret talent&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>She was an incredible athlete&period; She was great at gymnastics&comma; soccer&comma; softball&comma; dance&comma; and basketball&period; She was an incredible dancer&comma; too&period; She loved to swim&comma; dance&comma; do cartwheels and do jumps into our swimming pool&period; Gigi loved her TikTok dances&period; Gigi was confident but not in an arrogant way&period; She loved helping and teaching other people things&period; At school she offered the boys basketball coaches to help give the boys&&num;8217&semi; basketball team some pointers&comma; like the triangle offense&period; She was very much like her daddy and they both liked helping people learn new things and master them&period; They were great teachers&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>Gigi was very sweet&period; She always made sure everybody was okay and she was our shepherd&period; She always kept our family together&period; She loved family traditions&comma; and family movie night was important to her&period; She always looked out for everyone&period; She was very much in tune with our feelings and wanted the best for us&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em>Vanessa continued adding&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Gianna was smart&comma; she knew how to read&comma; speak and write Mandarin&comma; she knew Spanish and had great grades and kept them up all while becoming a great basketball player&period; She was president of school spirit&comma; on student council&period; She was director&&num;8217&semi;s assistant for her school play just like her big sister&period; She was looking forward to graduating eighth grade and moving on to high school with her big sister&comma; Natalia&period; I am so happy she was given the opportunity to know that she was accepted to the same high school&period; She was really happy&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>Gianna made us all proud and she still does&period; Gianna never tried to conform&period; She was always herself&period; She was a nice person&comma; a leader&comma; a teacher&comma; wearing a white tee&comma; black leggings&comma; a denim jacket&comma; white high-top Converse and a flannel tied around her waist&comma; and straight hair was her go-to style&period; She had rhythm and swag since she was a baby&period; She gave the best hugs and the best kisses&period; She had gorgeous&comma; soft lips like her daddy&period; She would hug me and hold me so tight&comma; I could feel her love me&comma; and I loved the way she looked up at me&comma; it was as if she was soaking me all in&period; We love each other so much&period; I miss her so much&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>She was so energetic&period; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t keep up with her energy&period; She lapped Natalia and I on track once&period; She was about six years old&period; We let her have a head start and she still dusted us&period; I miss her sweet kisses and cleverness&comma; and I miss her sarcasm and her wit&comma; and that adorable sly-side smile followed with a grin and a burst of laughter&period; We shared the same &&num;8220&semi;cat that ate the canary&&num;8221&semi; grin&period; Gigi was sunshine&period; She brightened up my day every day&period; I miss looking at her beautiful face&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>She was always so good&period; A rule follower&period; I knew I could always count on her to do the right thing&period; She was the most loving daughter&comma; thoughtful little sister and silly big sister&period; She often helped to carry the littles&&num;8217&semi; baby bag and playing with them&comma; and she loved helping with Bianka and Capri&period; Bianka loved going to the playground&comma; swimming and jumping on the trampoline with Gigi&period; I used to tell Gigi I thought Coco considered her her favorite sister&period; Capri would smile from ear to ear when Gigi walked into the room&comma; and Capri reminds me a lot of Gianna&period; They look alike and just smile with their whole face &&num;8212&semi; pure joy&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>We will not be able to see Gigi go to high school with Natalia and ask her how her day went&period; We didn&&num;8217&semi;t get a chance to teach her how to drive a car&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to tell her how gorgeous she looks on her wedding day&period; I will never get to see my baby girl walk down the aisle&comma; have a father-daughter dance with her daddy&comma; dance on the dance floor with me and have babies of her own&period; Gianna would have been an amazing mommy&period; She was very maternal ever since she was really little&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>Gigi would&&num;8217&semi;ve most likely become the best player in the WNBA&period; She would&&num;8217&semi;ve made a huge difference for women&&num;8217&semi;s basketball&period; Gigi was motivated to change the way everyone viewed women in sports&period; She wrote papers in school defending women and wrote about how the unequal pay difference for the NBA and WNBA leagues wasn&&num;8217&semi;t fair&period; And i truly feel she made positive change for the WNBA players now&comma; because they knew Gigi&&num;8217&semi;s goal was to eventually play in the WNBA&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em> <&sol;em><em>I am still so proud of Gianna&comma; and she was kind to everybody she met for the 13 years she was here on Earth&period; Her classmates shared many fond stories with us&comma; and those stories reminded me that Gianna loved and showed everyone that no act of kindness is ever too small to make a difference in someone&&num;8217&semi;s life&period; She was always&comma; always&comma; always considerate of others and their feelings&period; She was a beautiful&comma; kind&comma; happy&comma; silly&comma; thoughtful and loving sister and daughter&period; She was so full of life and had so much more to offer this world&period; I cannot imagine life without her&period; Mommy&comma; Natalia&comma; Bianka&comma; Capri and Daddy love you so much&comma; Gigi&period; I will miss your sweet handmade cards&comma; your sweet kisses&comma; and your gorgeous smile&period; I miss you&comma; all of you&comma; every day&period; I love you&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"B89ff3PBAZx" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We want to continue to send Vanessa Bryant our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Roommates&comma; what are your thoughts on this&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-wrap wpra-plugin-container" style&equals;"justify-content&colon; 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Danielle Jennings

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