‘Missing the love of my life:' Vanessa Bryant celebrates birthday with letter Kobe left her

LOS ANGELES -- Vanessa Bryant celebrated her 38th birthday Tuesday and shared a heartbreaking tribute to her late husband and daughter with her 14.1 million Instagram followers.

Vanessa said she found one last letter that Los Angeles Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant, left her.

The caption posted to Instagram read:

“Yesterday I found an envelope labeled To: The Love of my Life. From, Tu Papi ❤️I waited to open one more letter on my birthday. It gave me something to look forward to today.❤️The irony is that Kobe had a photo of me drawn with an Angel holding me up by an artist on the cover. Missing the Love of my Life and my sweet little Mamacita- my fellow Taurus. Grateful to wake up to my 3 sweet girls today. Wish we were all together.”


Celebrations will never be the same for the Bryant family, who lost Kobe and Gianna in a tragic helicopter crash on January 26.

Along with his wife, Vanessa, Kobe is survived by daughters Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 10 months.