In honor of her 19th wedding anniversary, Vanessa Bryant received a thoughtful gift from Kobe’s former teammate, Pau Gausol.
In the post shared to Instagram, Vanessa gushed over the red roses that were sent to her by Gausol and his wife, Catherine McDonnell. “Anniversary flowers from my Kobe. ❤️💔🙏🏽 Thank you @nataliabryant #GiannaBryant#BiankaBryant #CapriBryant @jeffleatham @catmcdonnell7 @paugasol,” the mother of four wrote as the caption alongside a photo of the gorgeous bouquet.
Earlier that day, Vanessa shared a heartfelt note on social media. Keeping her caption short, the 37-year-old confessed that she misses her late husband dearly. “My king, my heart, my best friend. Happy 19th wedding anniversary baby. I miss you so much. I wish you were here to hold me in your arms. I love you,” she wrote.
Following his untimely death in January 2020, Vanessa has honored Kobe several times on social media. Last week, she celebrated “Mamba Day,” which marks the four-year anniversary of Kobe’s last NBA game.
“Mamba Day,” she began. “My husband worked his ass off for 20 years. Gave it his all. All he wanted was to spend time with our girls and me to make up for lost time. He wanted to be there for every single milestone and special moment in our girls lives. He only got to enjoy 3 years and 9 months of retirement.”
She added, “We had 2 more daughters, he won an Oscar, he opened Granity studios, he became a 5x best selling author and coached Gianna’s basketball team in that time. She worked hard and gave her all 7 days a week just like her daddy. I wish I could go back to that morning, every day. I wish they had a normal local game on 1/26. Life truly isn’t fair. This is just senseless.”
Take a look at Vanessa’s gorgeous flowers below.