Mourners leave purple and gold flowers outside Kobe Bryant’s home in Orange County
People paused their lives on Monday to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant and the others lost in Sunday’s helicopter crash.
A memorial outside the gated community in Newport Coast off of North Pelican Hill Road that holds the Bryant family home continued to grow as mourners left flowers – many yellow and some purple, Laker colors.
Erin Karal drove here from Huntington Beach to leave a bouquet of sunflowers.
She kneeled in prayer and wiped away tears.
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“I was hoping to find some peace … find comfort,” Karal, 57, said as her voice cracked. “I knew I could at least come here to pay my respects to his family.”
She moved to Huntington Beach in 1985 and has been a Laker fan since.
She, like many others who trickled to the memorial throughout the day, pondered why Bryant’s death stung so much more than any other celebrity’s passing.
“He was bigger than life,” Karal said. “He was so exceptional … and did so much good work for others.”
One Newport Coast resident called Bryant a good neighbor who she often saw about.
“He was always at Starbucks, and I’d whisper, ‘Hi Kobe!’ because I didn’t want to make a big deal (out of it), and he’d say, ‘Hi,’ back,” she said.
“I wish I could do something,” the woman said. “I wish I could give his wife a big hug. To lose a husband and a daughter. … I can’t even imagine.”
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When the news broke early Sunday afternoon, Jaime Martinez thought it was some social-media joke. But news outlets started saying the same thing, and then he got the calls from friends and family.
“I’m his No. 1 fan,” the 42-year-old Anaheim resident said from behind sunglasses.
Martinez dropped off a bouquet before starting work around the Newport Beach area, maintaining communications towers.
“He gave us everything,” Martinez remembered. “He gave 200 percent when he played. He played from the heart, no matter if he was injured, and you learn to appreciate people like that.
“Ever since he was traded to the Lakers in exchange for (center Vlade) Divac, I watched him,” he said as he stared at the Laker balloons blowing in the morning breeze.
Martinez scrolled through photos on his phone from an event where he saw Bryant from afar amongst a crowd. In one, he and friends held up a No. 24 jersey. On Sunday, he received condolences from friends and his family.
“I got calls, text messages from everyone,” said Martinez, who has two daughters. “I still can’t believe it. … And as a father, it was worse to find out his daughter was with him too.”
Crystal Gonsalves, 24, of Huntington Beach cried for the loss of the nine people on the helicopter.
“Being a mother, being a sister and being a daughter, you know family can be gone from one second to another,” she said.
Gonsalves stood alongside her younger sister, wiping away tears. Her dream was to meet Bryant one day.
“It goes to show how someone like him can affect so many,” she said.
Memorial-goers talked to one another, sharing weak “Good morning” greetings. Others briefly chatted about Laker memories, took photos of the yellow and purple candles, the basketballs and the Nike shoes left behind.
“We can’t do anything else,” Gonsalves said of the memorial’s visitors.
“But we can be here to show (the victims) that we’re here for them.”
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