Vanessa Bryant paid tribute to her late husband Kobe Bryant and other famous lives lost in 2020.
The 41-year-old NBA icon was killed in a helicopter crash in January along with 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, six other passengers and the pilot. Kobe's passing was one of many shocking deaths this year, weeks before the start of a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 290,000 people in the United States and 1.59 million worldwide.
"Words cannot do justice to the grief we felt this year," Vanessa said on Thursday, Dec. 10 during TIME's Person of the Year presentation. "At every level of human connection, from across the world to across the table, we experienced profound loss. We said goodbye to husbands, daughters, wives, sons, grandparents, friends, and national heroes. And we continue to count the lives surrendered to this cruel pandemic, which has claimed well over a million souls worldwide."
She continued, "Tonight, we mourn the people we all knew and the many we never will. May our collective grief unite us on the path forward."
TIME's presentation included a montage set to a performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott.
"Everything is a game seven," Kobe is heard saying in a voiceover, taken from a 2019 appearance on ESPN's SportsCenter. "When you approach every practice, every game with that kind of mentality, it bleeds into the rest of the guys."
The montage also honored legendary James Bond actor Sean Connery, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, iconic TV host Regis Philbin, soul singer Bill Withers, country star Kenny Rogers, Bonnie Pointer of the R&B group The Pointer Sisters, veteran actor and comedian Carl Reiner, actress Kelly Preston—John Travolta's wife, and actor Jerry Stiller—Ben Stiller's dad.
Look back and remember the lives of other stars we lost in 2020.