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Gabrielle Giffords

November 5, 2011 by · Comments Off on Gabrielle Giffords 

Gabrielle Giffords, When President George H.W. Bush came to visit in the hospital, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords could only say “Wow!” And another word he had been throwing often at the time, “chicken.”

Months later, when he was shown photos of famous people to see if he recognized faces, looked at Arnold Schwarzenegger Giffords, and answered more or less accurate: “Messin ‘Around. Babies.”

These and other details appear in a new book by Giffords and her husband, who offers the most personal and agonizing slow recovery after being shot in the head at close range.

The memoir, entitled Gabby: A story of courage and hope, Giffords describes efforts in the past 10 months to relearn how to walk and talk, and the painful discovery that six people died in the attack of 08 January from a grocery store in Tucson.

The Associated Press purchased an advance copy of the book, which goes on sale November 15.

Husband of perspective
The book is written from the perspective of her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. However, Giffords is offered the last chapter – one page of short sentences and phrases called Voice of Gabby in which he says that her goal is to return to Congress.

“I will become stronger. I’m going back,” he wrote.

The book also reveals that the couple, who married in 2007, was trying for a baby. Giffords, 41, had undergone several rounds of fertility treatments in recent years and was hoping to get pregnant in early 2011.

The book does not say whether Giffords will seek reelection next year. Kelly said the couple did not want to rush a decision. The deadline to formally declare their intentions is in May.

The Arizona Democrat was murdered a few days after being sworn in for her third term.

Giffords surprised her colleagues by appearing in the House from 01 August to vote on the agreement of the debt ceiling, but has largely avoided public attention, spending most of their time at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a center rehabilitation in Houston.

In the memoir, tells Kelly trying to tell his wife several times that she had been shot during a meeting with voters. But she did not understand until March 12.

Giffords asked Kelly if he remembered being shot, and she said yes, but he said it was difficult to know if it really did. She described what she remembers with three words: “Shot. Shocked. Fear.”

Later that day, Kelly said six people had died. Giffords was overcome with emotion and had trouble getting through her therapy.

It was not until July, weeks after being discharged from the hospital in Houston to Kelly’s house 25 miles away, he learned that he had died: an official, a federal judge, a 9-year-old Giffords and three others did not.

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