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Gabrielle Giffords’ love story with husband Mark Kelly

An unusual love story of an astronaut and a congresswoman

PATRICK COOPER,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, January 10, 2011, 3:57 AM

Updated Monday, January 10, 2011, 3:24 PM

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Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly

The man keeping vigil at the bedside of his wife, wounded Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is himself an authentic American hero.

Mark Kelly,46, is from a West Orange,New Jersey Irish American family,a former member of the Irish America magazine top 100 and a devoted husband and father. He has a twin brother Scott who is also an astronaut.

His parents, Richard and Patricia Kelly moved from West Orange to Texas to be nearer their twin astronaut sons. Their Irish roots are in Cork and Kerry.

The twins were about to achieve a remarkable piece of American history in April.

Kelly is scheduled to lead the last shuttle mission ever to the International Space Station in April where his brother, Scott is currently one of the crew members.

It will be one of the most high profile flight missions in history, marking the end of the space shuttle program.

Whether Kelly can make it now as his wife recovers from a dreadful gunshot wound is hard to say.
He immediately flew to her bedside and was comforted by among others, President Obama who called him directly to commiserate.

Ironically, it was Gifford who was always desperately worried about her husband when he was flying . “You have to be strong and detach yourself from what could happen,” Giffords said in an interview last fall in the Daily Beast about their unusual relationship. She said lift-off was “a combination of excitement and fear,” and an “awesome experience.” She said launch and re-entry were the toughest times for her.

On his last voyage, Gifford gave Kelly her wedding ring, which he had inscribed with the words, ”You’re the closest to heaven that I’ve ever been.”

Before each space flight Kelly explained to Daily Beast they exchange intimate letters that are ”very serious, honest, open, and straight from the heart."

Giffords always writes to her husband before takeoff telling him how much she loves him, She was set to attend his launch in April and she confessed, “I’m always on pins and needles wondering, will this be the last conversation I am going to have with my husband?

Now give the awful tragedy that befell her, the roles will be reversed as Mark Kelly waits at her bedside.

The couple met on a trade mission in 2003 to China but he was still married to his first wife and she was seeing someone else. They stayed in touch and she advised him on dating . Their own first date, a year later, was an unusual one when she took him around a prison in Florence, Arizona, as she was working on death penalty issues and he got to sit in the electric chair.

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32 Comments

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Nanarose | Feb 06, 2011, 02:45 PM EST

What do I think? After reading the facts...I am appalled. I am sorry the Congresswoman was shot but not happy that she apparently was the other woman in this triangle. Once she found out that he was married, Giffords should of walked away permanently. She states she liked his family values!!! HELLO!!! Our Irish Family is from County Cork. We take marriage seriously. Hero? Who? Where? Nana "irishrose", Houston, Texas.

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freeadvice | Jan 24, 2011, 07:18 AM EST

I agree with Gowlane. This is the story about the great American hero leaving his wife and 2 children and marrying a (probably) younger woman who he met while "at a work thing" while his wife was at home raising their two children. If he is such a great person and this is such a love story, then why did he leave his family? When the going gets tough, just bail out Astronaut, then tell everyone how happy you are. Hopefully the first wife will get 1/2 his military retirement, unless she has remarried then she will get nothing. I agree gowlane, this is typical, let wife #1 help you with your career and give you children and the best years of her life and then leave and marry the woman with a big-time career who has no children and never married. Let me tell you Mr. Kelly, Congressman G. would not have married you way back when you were just starting out. Good thing you're an Astronaut or she would not have looked twice at you as an O-1 with nothing.

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seanomelbourne | Jan 13, 2011, 07:33 PM EST

Where this this crazy come from "Jeugenen" the Aryan brotherhood section of the tea party?.

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Jeugenen | Jan 13, 2011, 05:58 PM EST

PALIN AND GIFFORDS HONOR GOD AND COUNTRY The ruling Tea Party militias know that the leading patriots Sarah Palin and Gabrielle Giffords, like Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy, serve the American People by the sacred laws of their God and Country. And they know that the failed political attempts to blame the Tea Party militias, Palin and other leading social and economic Conservatives for this assassination attempt on Giffords' life are intended to instigate fear and distrust of the popular social and economic conservatives, who are seizing political control of the House and Senate. Everyone in World now knows that this failed assassin, Jared Loughner, is a Crypto-Neo-Marxist Jew, whose has listed the "Communist Manifesto" as one of his favorite books. As such, he has been much inspired the notorious rhetoric of such zealots as Paul Krugman, Abaham Foxman, Ben-Ami, Simon Greer, the insidious lobbyists of National Jewish Democratic Council, the Israel Lobby, and their colluding Crypto-Neo-Marxist propagandists in the news media.

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warrenpoint00 | Jan 12, 2011, 07:33 PM EST

I say old boy 2bnot2b you can chage your name but your bigoted racist rhetoric will always lead right back to you.God Bless America and God save us from Herr Sarah and her comrads

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seanomelbourne | Jan 12, 2011, 06:09 PM EST

2Bornot2B the final arbiter of all opinions no one possesses his Godlike knowledge."the expert on everything" At least have the courage to admit you are a racist/bigot.

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2BorNot2B | Jan 12, 2011, 02:14 PM EST

Where to start after so many ringing approvals and plaudits for my single post on this subject... Let's take them one by mentally and verbally challenged one just to be fair: @forflann - to your question of whether I am 'one of Sarah's flock' there are many possible answers, none of which would be polite or printable. A short one, however, would be NO, but how could someone, who apparently lives up Obama's sphincter, possibly understand. ----- @seanomelbourne: "pull your head in"??? I'd say 'Pull your head OUT'... from the same nether regions forflann seems to inhabit. The time you spend gossiping (more than 'contributing' as you may allow yourself to fantasize), on every possible subject appearing on IC, shows a clear picture of your leanings, as well as of the vast amount of disposable time you have. No wonder you love the 'take from the rich and productive to give freebies to the idle and indolent so they keep us in power' nanny state the left promises. --- @warrenpoint00: Pretty much wasted time commenting on your baseless assumption about my supposed anti-Jewish stance; there's not a single instance on any of the words I have ever posted on IC that would lead to such conclusion. If anything...I am much more anti/muslim/retrograde-violent-baboons/who would like to drag the world into their 7th C bedouin tents... but then I saw your name and got an immediate clue as to your IQ, revealed on your moniker: point00! -- I mean...why bother! --- And finally @manhattan: Me.. anti-Semitic? I suggest you read my post in its entirety before jumping to conclusions. Are you intellectually lazy, or just lazy without the intellect? -- As for the 'rag' comment: you may be here to expand your horizons, they may indeed be that narrow.. me, I'm here to counter the slanted and agenda-driven lies, and the dis-information this rag trades in under the guise of 'reporting to the Irish community.'

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manhattan | Jan 12, 2011, 12:46 PM EST

Yikes, Patrick Cooper wrote a nice story about Mark Kelly and his marriage to Gabrielle Gifford and some of the cruel people on this site knock her for her stand on abortion, being Jewish and having the nerve to marry a catholic, Mark for being divorced without even knowing why,I've always been proud of my Irish heritage but after reading the comments day after day what I have always known is sadly a lot of Irish are mean spirited,jealous anti ssemitic. 2wbornot2b if this is a rag why are you here? Warren Point you are just anti american period. Never do you say a good word about anyone or anything

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warrenpoint00 | Jan 12, 2011, 10:56 AM EST

Oh 2b, ha ha ha you sad little Not2B you definitely are one of Herr Sarahs nazi flock.Thing is though Gabby Gifford has blue eyes and blond hair, Nazis must be changing their profile on who in America must be exterminated.

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forflann | Jan 11, 2011, 05:40 PM EST

seanomelbourne indeed the Us should follow Ireland's example and get rid of the guns. The right to bear arms in the Constitution is one thing, but those men never dreamed of automatic weapons. Thanks to "Black-ops" x-box game my greart-grandson is able to tell the difference between an m-4 and an m-16 and he's 11! The US has amighty gun culture and gun-shows make it easy to to fill the hands of some people that are downright dangerous. I know many will slag me for saying this.

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seanomelbourne | Jan 11, 2011, 05:28 PM EST

2Bornot2B what a load of insensitive drivel pull your head in.

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forflann | Jan 11, 2011, 05:22 PM EST

2BorNot2B And are you one of Sarah's flock?

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2BorNot2B | Jan 11, 2011, 05:04 PM EST

Boy... someone already get an altar, some candles and incense and canonize this woman! She shot up (no pun intended) from virtual anonimity to 'Congressional goddess' status! --- This unfortunate occurrence was nothing less than red meat for the 'columnists' on this virtual rag. I mean the credentials of Giffords cannot be more sterling for the purposes of story exploitaition of IC: Repub/turned DemocRat, married to a purported Irish guy, though frankly, not the most comely one; she's pro-abort; pro-barrack-care bill;Then, fortune of fortunes... a gay/mexican/Am assistant picks her up when shot, comforts her all the way to the hospital, and stays by her bedside (can you say swoon!), there's got to be a flaw in there somewhere.. Oh yes, she is mildly anti-illegal immigration; that ought to rain on someone's lovefest parade. --- One thing for sure this rag will milk the story for all it's worth, even if 'love-stories' and cupids have to be concocted from thin air. PS: After reading gowlane's post I find the husband even more repulsive.

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gowlane | Jan 11, 2011, 03:11 PM EST

It was a horrible, unspeakable tragedy that the congresswoman was shot, and so many people were killed and wounded -- an innocent little girl the same age as a darling granddaughter, a Catholic judge who was a daily communicant, and all those ordinary people who were just in the wrong place. I pray for them all. My Irish roots are strong and I closely adhere to the wonderful Irish Catholic values brought to America by my forebears from Kerry and Mayo. In view of this, Mark Kelly would not make this Irish-American mother proud. As is unfortunately so common in the armed services these days, he is divorced from his wife, the mother of his two children. It is a frequent scenario -- military officer advances and decides to dump the family -- poor wife whom he dragged around the world, spending so much time alone raising kids while he pursued his whatever. I don't know Kelly's particular circumstances, but he divorced his wife after having met the congresswoman, so one can guess. Now he's living the good life -- married to a congresswoman, no kids underfoot, and on the world's stage. As a mother and a woman who respects my heritage, my pride would be for the decent unselfish man who stays with his family, lives up to his vows, and in spite of life's hardships, takes care of his responsibilities. That is my idea of a HERO! What shall it profit a man...............?

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mamaginnty | Jan 11, 2011, 09:50 AM EST

Please...do not gorget the people who died and their families. Think of the child who died. Gun clubs ok, after that all guns should be banned in the U.S.A.

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