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has represented Arizona’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2007. She serves on the House Armed Services Committee and is the ranking member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. A graduate of Scripps College, she has a masters degree from Cornell University. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico and a fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Mark Kelly was a captain in the United States Navy when he commanded the final mission of space shuttle Endeavour in May 2011. A veteran of four space flights to the International Space Station, he is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and holds a masters degree from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. As a naval aviator he flew thirty-nine combat missions in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow was the coauthor, with Randy Pausch, of The Last Lecture, the #1 New York Times bestseller now translated into forty-eight languages. His other bestsellers include The Girls from Ames, and as coauthor, Highest Duty, with Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.

Six-year-old Gabby is pensive in a straw hat. (Giffords Family)

As a fifth grader at Tanque Verde Elementary School in Tucson, Gabby was the “obvious choice” to play the title character in the musical Annie. Her half-shepherd, half-Airedale terrier starred alongside her as Sandy. (Giffords Family)

Gabby, age eight, proudly sports a cap from El Campo Tire and Service Centers. For many years, El Campo’s slogan was “The Buck-Stretchers.” (Giffords Family)

Mark (right) and Scott look ready to race in August 1964. They are six months old. (Kelly Family)

On the back of this snapshot from August 1970, Mark’s mother wrote: “Twins are ready to take these fish over to a neighbor.” Their dad and their paternal grandfather caught forty fish on an all-night charter boat. (Kelly Family)

The eight-year-old Kelly twins (Mark, left) got snow cones on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey. (Kelly Family)

Mark likes this photograph of Gabby with her “wild, frizzed-out ’80s hair.” (Giffords Family)

Gabby wore this traditional Mennonite dress while living with Mennonites in the Mexican state of Chihuahua during her year as a Fulbright Scholar in 1994. (Giffords Family)

Gabby knew how to ride scooters and motorcycles, and how to fix them. (Giffords Family)

The message her parents wrote next to this photograph of Gabby and her mom in her 1993 Scripps College yearbook reads: “Gabby . . . You’ve given us so much more than we could ever reciprocate. But beyond all that, thanks for just being you.” (Courtesy of Scripps College)

Gabby graduated from Scripps, the all-female college in Claremont, California, in 1993. Her family was there to celebrate (from left to right, Spencer, Gloria, and Melissa). (Giffords Family)

Gabby and her dad were together on the day before she earned a master’s degree in regional planning from Cornell. Her degree helped her land a job at Price Waterhouse in New York City. (Giffords Family)

Mark (left) says that “even though both my mother and father were cops, some people considered Scott and me to be borderline juvenile delinquents.” (Kelly Family)

Mark (right) flew thirty-nine combat missions during the Gulf War, most with Paul Fujimura. They were stationed on the aircraft carrier the USS Midway. (Kelly Family)

Richard Kelly was there to see his sons Mark (center) and Scott graduate from test-pilot school at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Maryland, in 1994. (Kelly Family)

The Arizona Daily Star ran a story about Gabby when she was preparing to sell El Campo in November 1999. The newspaper caption reads: “Giffords is quietly educating herself on political issues.” (© Jeffry Scott, Arizona Daily Star)

Gabby was the face of El Campo Tire. (© Hank Brandt Advertising)

When Gif Giffords, ever the philosopher, was photographed for a piece in the Arizona Daily Star, he was carrying