They Heard Kobe Bryant’s Helicopter Go Down. Then They Prayed.

A strange morning turned surreal. At the start of the Sunday service, Pastor Bob was passed a note from Howland Forrest, the church member who had glimpsed the crash from her car. He glanced at it. Reading is hard for someone who can wave his hands near his face and not see them.

The note said that Kobe Bryant was on the helicopter. It was 45 minutes before TMZ first broke the news to the world.

Someone in the parking lot, working for a local television station, had passed that rumor to Howland Forrest. Soon she saw a black SUV pull in. The driver got out, wearing a dress shirt with dark pants and dark jacket, she said. Visibly upset, he walked across the street, spoke with the authorities, and came back to the church lot.

He had been at Camarillo Airport, Howland Forrest said the man told her, waiting for a helicopter from Orange County. He planned to drive Bryant, his daughter and seven others to Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks.

“He said, ‘I got a quick call to come here,’” Howland Forrest said. She prayed with him, she said, and he left.

Pastor Bob did not dare share such information, unverified and unreported. But he steered his sermon toward the unfolding events outside.

“At the end, in my appeal, I said, ‘We’ve had a very powerful reminder that life is uncertain,’” he said. “‘Just as Job experienced great tragedy, very suddenly, something really shocking happened here today. It could happen to any one of us.’”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/sports/kobe-bryant-crash-site.html?emc=rss&partner=rss