More than two weeks after a fatal helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others, funeral plans for girls basketball coach Christina Mauser have been announced. According to ABC 7 New York, Mauser will be laid to rest exactly three weeks after the crash on Sunday, Feb. 16. Services will be held at 1 p.m. inside the gymnasium of her alma mater, Edison High School in Huntington Beach.
Mauser, former coach at Orange County’s Harbor Day School and an assistant coach for Gianna Bryant’s Mamba Academy basketball team, was one of nine people aboard Bryant’s Sikorsky S-76B helicopter on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 26. On their way to a basketball game at the Mamba Sports Academy, the aircraft encountered dense fog and crashed into a Calabasas, California hillside, killing everyone on board.
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Mauser left behind her husband, Matt Mauser, and their three children, who are aged 3, 9, and 11.
Speaking to ABC News just days after her death, Mauser’s husband opened up about the moment he learned that his wife was among the victims.
“He called me and said…’Is Christina OK? There’s reports that Kobe’s dead,’” he recalled the moment a friend called him, explaining that he had also begun texting and calling his wife after hearing that a helicopter had crashed. “And I just hit the floor.”
Matt added that telling his three children that their mother had died was “hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“How do you tell a child their mommy’s no longer with us?” he said. “They screamed, they yelled. And I just held them.”
“I love my wife. With everything I had,” he added. “I want more time.”
“I just want people to know how amazing my wife was,” he continued. “I want everybody to know not only about my wife, but about the other people on that helicopter that were amazing people. Including Gianna and KB. It was a helicopter full of incredibly talented, hardworking, sweet, kind, fantastic people.”
Along with Mauser, Bryant, and Gianna, the other victims of the crash include pilot Ara Zobayan, Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton, Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri, and their daughter Alyssa.
A public memorial for Bryant and the other victims is scheduled to take place at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, Feb. 24. Further details for the service have not yet been announced.
