It’s been around six weeks since the tragic death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others, killed in a helicopter crash.
On Sunday, Vanessa Bryant, the wife of the former Los Angeles Lakers star, shared a touching photo of her eldest daughter Natalia to her Instagram account.
Vanessa snapped the photo of the 17-year-old standing in front of one of the many murals that have sprung up across Los Angeles since the death of Kobe and his daughter.
It’s reported that Vanessa and her three children, Natalia, 3-year-old Bianka, and 8-month old Capri were en route to a high school winter formal dance when they stopped by the mural.
The beautiful mural shows Kobe kissing a smiling 13-year-old Gianni on the head; there is a golden halo floating just above them. For the photo, Natalia stood between her dad and her little sister with a big proud smile on her face.
Vanessa posted the photo with a touching caption that simply read, “my babies. Natalia. #winterformal #together #family,” she also included a heart emoji.
At the time of writing, Vanessa’s photo had received 4.5 million likes and a wave of appreciative comments. Lots of Instagram users responded by flooding the comments section with heart-shaped emojis.
The whole family is in Vanessa Bryant’s new profile pic
Vanessa also changed her Instagram profile pic to her and her three daughters standing in front of the mural.
Vanessa Bryant and the kids in front of a Kobe and Gigi mural ???? pic.twitter.com/3Ebb7AAKuO
— Danny (@CountOn24) March 9, 2020
Vanessa Bryant gave an emotional speech at Kobe’s memorial
Vanessa Bryant spoke publicly for the first time on February 24 at a memorial service for the victims at the Staples Center. She gave an emotional and eloquent speech to the thousands that had gathered there to mourn the victims. The memorial also featured emotional speeches from Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal.
On the same day of the memorial, it emerged that Vanessa had launched a wrongful death lawsuit against the company that owned the helicopter, Island Express. The lawsuit is claiming that the crash was due to negligence by Island Express and pilot Ara George Zobayan.
Sheriff’s deputies accused of sharing photos from crash scene
Vanessa Bryant recently spoke of how she was devastated after it emerged that eight sheriff’s deputies from Los Angeles County had shared photographs of the victims from the crash scene.
Sheriff Villanueva said he considered it a “betrayal” by his deputies; he apologized to the families and vowed to remove all photographs.
The Bryants first met when Kobe was 21-years-old, and Vanessa was 17-years-old. When Kobe proposed six months later, the star’s parents allegedly disagreed with the marriage because of their young age. However, they maintained a happy marriage for many years and had celebrated 19 anniversaries when Kobe died.
Kobe, Gianna, and seven others died tragically on January 26 when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed into the hills of Calabasas near Los Angeles.