Gabrielle Union is opening up about the “stunned silence” that overcame her family with husband Dwyane Wade after learning that NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among the nine victims of a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles Sunday. The actress reflected on the tragedy as she shared a photo of Bryant, his wife Vanessa, and their four daughters to Instagram Monday.
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“Yesterday watching my husband & the kids in stunned silence, just staring at them, all of us thinking about [Vanessa Bryant] & her children and the families that lost pieces of their heart in an instant yesterday,” Union wrote. “Please remember that as life moves on for everyone else, the grief these families are experiencing just started. Please dont forget about them. Please dont forget about all the ppl who are suffering and frozen as life around them goes on.”
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“We love you,” she concluded. “We are praying for you, for all of us struggling with unimaginable challenges we dont speak of.”
Union’s husband, who played for the Miami Heat for most of his career in the NBA, took to his Instagram Story to share how devastated he is at the loss, breaking down in tears at points as he mourned the loss of a friend and a colleague, as well as his young daughter.
“Today is one of the saddest days of my lifetime,” Wade said. “It seems like a bad dream that you just want to wake up from. It’s a nightmare.”
“If you got the chance to know Kobe, if you got the chance to really know Kobe, there’s nobody better man,” he continued. “Emotions are all over the place. These are the moments where you ask, ‘Why?’”
Sending his love to the whole Bryant family, Wade remembered how Bryant inspired him on and off the court.
“I’m gonna miss him, I’m gonna miss the friendship,” the NBA player said. “I said it many times that when Kobe Bryant retired from the game of basketball, he left a hole in my wanting to play. In the league, I chased him. That’s who I chased. I wanted to be respected by him, and once I reached that level, I knew I did something.”
“Kobe, thank you man. Thank you for all the memories,” he ended. “We got a lot of good ones, and these tears that we’re crying — we’re going to miss you. And it’s not leaving today, a week from now, a month from now, a year from now. We will forever, forever miss you man. You are a legend, you are a icon, you are a father, you are a husband, you are a son, you are a brother. You’re a friend. Thank you for being my friend, I love you brother.”
Photo credit: Bobby Metelus/FilmMagic/Getty
