The memoir co-authored by Astronaut Mark Kelly and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is touching, inspirational, with a touch of humor, but it unavoidably reminds one of the increasing strain of violence in American culture, visible both at home and abroad.
Gifford’s memory of being “shocked” and “scared” after taking a bullet in the head in Arizona could describe any sane person’s response to the path Americans seem to be taking in the 21st century. The review of the Kelly-Giffords book at Politico mentions other losses the couple shared:
Kelly writes that he tried to tell Giffords what happened during the attack multiple times, but she did not understand the situation until several months later on March 12. At that time, the AP writes, Kelly asked Giffords if she recalled being shot, and she said she did.
Giffords said three words when he asked what she remembered about it: “Shot. Shocked. Scary.”
She found out about the six who died the same day, the AP reported. Kelly was reading an article about her recovery and skipped a paragraph that discussed those who died on Jan. 8. Giffords realized he left a part out, and Kelly told her about the deaths.
Giffords was overwhelmed and had trouble with her therapy, the AP wrote, and later that night cried in bed with Kelly as she told her husband how awful she felt about those who had been killed.
She did not learn who died until six months later, however, the memoir reveals. After Giffords was released from the Houston hospital where she was recovering, she asked her husband to tell her who had died.
When Kelly first told her that her staffer, Gabe Zimmerman, had died, she broke down crying and moaning, the AP reported. Then he shared that her friend Judge John Roll also had been killed, before telling her about the four others who suffered fatal shots in the shooting spree.
The book details other personal tragedies experienced by Giffords and her husband. Giffords has lost 50 percent of her vision in both eyes, the AP wrote. And the two were trying to have a baby at the time of the shooting — Giffords had several rounds of fertility treatments over the years and wanted to be pregnant in 2011.
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