GIFFORDS: MOM'S PAINTINGS AND CHEEZ-ITS

posted by Michael Chihak

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has all the comforts of home in the suburban Houston residence she shares with husband Mark Kelly.

And why shouldn't she? It is one of three homes that Giffords and Kelly have maintained as part of their once hectic schedule -- she in Washington for congressional work, back to Tucson most weekends for constituent visits, to Houston when she could; he mostly in Houston, sometimes blasting off into space, visiting his wife in Washington and Tucson when time permitted.

Then came Jan. 8, 2011, when Giffords was shot through the left side of her brain in a tragedy that took the lives of six people who had come to visit Giffords at a "Congress on Your Corner" event. Giffords was among 13 people wounded.

That changed life for Kelly and Giffords, and they have settled in -- temporarily -- to the modest brick home on a quiet, tree-lined street in a residential neighborhood of suburban Houston.

There, the decor includes several of Giffords' mom's paintings on the family room walls, a brightly decorated Christmas tree and several toasters. After all, Kelly pointed out during our visit Thursday, "Gabby likes toast."

Ah, yes, that report of the first word she spoke after the shooting. "Toast," she was reported to have said when served a breakfast that didn't include it. Kelly and Giffords' book, Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, debunks that, saying her first word, a day or two earlier, was "what" or more like "whatwhatwhat."

Giffords departs each morning for physical therapy in downtown Houston, carrying with her a cooler filled with lunch that Kelly has prepared. Included, he told us, are a couple of pieces of fruit and, usually, her one junk-food indulgence, Cheez-Its.

She was at physical therapy on Thursday when we interviewed Kelly. Our interview can be seen at azweek.com.