Gabby_ A Story of Courage and Hope - Alison Hanson [20]
When I finally got back Gabby’s ring a week after the shooting, I had to scrape little specks of her blood off it. I held it in my hand, remembering not just the day Gabby and I got engaged, but also the ways in which we first discovered each other. They remain warm memories for both of us.
A few months after Gabby was shot, I was going through an old file of paperwork and happened to come upon a three-page letter she wrote to me at the end of 2004. It was a keepsake from our courtship, and I smiled as I began reading it.
When Gabby wrote the letter, she was about to go on a long-planned trip to India with a friend, and she felt bad that she’d be missing New Year’s Eve with me. We wouldn’t be seeing each other until January 9. To make up for her absence, she sent me a bunch of wrapped gifts in a box labeled “The Hippest Astronaut’s 8-Day Entertainment Kit.” She had a separate present—a book, a CD, a toy—for each of the first eight days of 2005, and her letter described why she had chosen every gift.
For January 1, she included her horoscope (Gemini) and mine (Pisces). She was especially taken with the prediction in her horoscope—that she’d be having “a year of mind-wobbling, heart-opening adventures in love.”
For January 3, she sent me a CD by the Latin artist known as Juanes. “My dirty little secret is that I love Latin Pop,” Gabby wrote. “I promise not to make you listen to it too much but if you don’t dig track 9, with Nelly Furtado, we will have to have a serious discussion.”
For January 5, she sent an astronaut action figure. “The truth is that I love toys! Your profession lends itself to cool action figures. Who ever heard of a political super hero?” That day’s gift included an album by Gila Bend, a band popular in Tucson. Gabby wrote, “If you hate this CD, lie!”
I can’t recall what gift Gabby gave me to be opened on January 8, the last day of her gift-giving extravaganza. Her accompanying letter mentioned toasting my new home, so it might have been a bottle of champagne. Most of what she wrote focused not on the gift but on her desire to be with me again. She promised to call me as soon as she arrived back in the States, ending her message: “I’m looking forward to talking to you.”
It felt good to read Gabby’s letter again. It was so enthusiastic and flirtatious. I could hear her voice as I read it. The last line, though, that’s what really got me. Because Gabby was shot on January 8, 2011, I was totally struck by those words she had left for me on January 8, 2005: “I’m looking forward to talking to you.”
It was like a message from Gabby as she was, telling me not to worry, that we’ll get through everything. She’ll be talking to me again.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Tomorrow”
From the time Gabby was a little girl, she always had an irrepressibly upbeat personality and a clear, beautiful singing voice. She was a kid who sang with a smile. And so, in 1981, when she was a fifth grader at Tanque Verde Elementary School in Tucson, she became the obvious choice to play the title role in the school’s production of Annie.
I’ve been told that eleven-year-old Gabby embraced the part as if it were her destiny. She delivered her lines with heart and enthusiasm, and to make sure she had chemistry with her costar, she brought along her own dog, a half-shepherd, half-Airedale terrier, to play the role of Sandy.
Adults who saw her in that show said Gabby had star quality, and some even got teary-eyed watching her. When she sang about the sun coming out tomorrow, no one needed to check the weather forecast. They believed her. (Of course, it helped that this was the desert. The sun always came out.)
Months after the show, on one of her family’s many trips south of the border, they went to Mexico City to see a performance of Annie in Spanish. Their seats were near the stage, and Gabby stood up and sang along with the Mexican Annie, belting out the lyrics in her own mix of English and Spanish: