January 8, 2011, began like all others.

You were both doing the work that you love.

You were meeting with constituents,

which is something that you loved doing

as a congresswoman,

and Mark, you were happily preparing

for your next space shuttle.

And suddenly, everything that you had planned

or expected in your lives

was irrevocably changed forever.

Mark Kelly: Yeah, it's amazing,

it's amazing how everything can change

for any of us in an instant.

People don't realize that.

I certainly didn't.

Gabby Giffords: Yes.

MK: And on that Saturday morning,

I got this horrible phone call

from Gabby's chief of staff.

She didn't have much other information.

She just said, "Gabby was shot."

A few minutes later, I called her back

and I actually thought for a second,

well, maybe I just imagined getting this phone call.

I called her back, and that's when she told me

that Gabby had been shot in the head.

And from that point on,

I knew that our lives were going to be a lot different.

PM: And when you arrived at the hospital,

what was the prognosis that they gave you

about Gabby's condition and what recovery, if any,

you could expect?

MK: Well, for a gunshot wound to the head

and a traumatic brain injury,

they typically can't tell you much.

Every injury is different. It's not predictable

like often a stroke might be predictable,

which is another TBI kind of injury.

So they didn't know how long Gabby would be in a coma,

didn't know when that would change

and what the prognosis would be.

PM: Gabby, has your recovery

been an effort to create a new Gabby Giffords

or reclaim the old Gabby Giffords?

GG: The new one -- better, stronger, tougher.

(Applause)

MK: That to say,

when you look at the picture behind us,

to come back from that kind of injury

and come back strong and stronger than ever

is a really tough thing to do.

I don't know anybody

that's as tough as my wonderful wife right here.

(Applause)

PM: And what were the first signs

that recovery was not only going to be possible

but you were going to have some semblance

of the life that you and Gabby had planned?

MK: Well, the first thing, for me, was

Gabby was still kind of almost unconscious,

but she did something when she was in the ICU hospital bed

that she used to do when we might

be out to dinner at a restaurant,

in that she pulled my ring off

and she flipped it from one finger to the next,

and at that point I knew

that she was still in there.

PM: And there were certain words, too.

Didn't she surprise you with words in the beginning?

MK: Well, it was tough in the beginning. GG: What? What? Chicken. Chicken. Chicken.

MK: Yeah, that was it.

For the first month, that was the extent

of Gabby's vocabulary.

For some reason, she has aphasia,

which is difficulty with communication.

She latched on to the word "chicken,"

which isn't the best but certainly is not the worst.

(Laughter)

And we were actually worried

it could have been a lot worse than that.

PM: Gabby, what's been the toughest challenge

for you during this recovery?

GG: Talking. Really hard. Really.

MK: Yeah, with aphasia, Gabby knows what she wants to say,

she just can't get it out.

She understands everything,

but the communication is just very difficult

because when you look at the picture,

the part of your brain where those communication centers are

are on the left side of your head,

which is where the bullet passed through.

PM: So you have to do a very dangerous thing:

speak for your wife.

MK: I do.

It might be some of the most dangerous things I've ever done.

PM: Gabby, are you optimistic

about your continuing recovery --

walking, talking,

being able to move your arm and leg?

GG: I'm optimistic. It will be a long, hard haul,

but I'm optimistic.

PM: That seems to be the number one characteristic of Gabby Giffords,

wouldn't you say? (Applause)

MK: Gabby's always been really optimistic.

She works incredibly hard every day.

GG: On the treadmill, walked on my treadmill,

Spanish lessons, French horn.

MK: It's only my wife who could be --

and if you knew her before she was injured,

you would kind of understand this --

somebody who could be injured

and have such a hard time communicating

and meets with a speech therapist,

and then about a month ago, she says,

"I want to learn Spanish again."

PM: Well, let's take a little closer look

at the wife, and this was even before

you met Gabby Giffords.

And she's on a motor scooter there,

but it's my understanding that's a very tame image

of what Gabby Giffords was like growing up.

MK: Yeah, Gabby, she used to race motorcycles.

So that's a scooter, but she had --

well, she still has a BMW motorcycle.

PM: Does she ride it? MK: Well, that's a challenge

with not being able to move her right arm,

but I think with something I know about, Velcro,

we might be able to get her back on the bike,

Velcro her right hand up onto the handlebar.

PM: I have a feeling we might see that picture next,

Gabby.

But you meet, you're already decided

that you're going to dedicate your life to service.

You're going into the military

and eventually to become an astronaut.

So you meet.

What attracts you to Gabby?

MK: Well, when we met, oddly enough,

it was the last time we were in Vancouver,

about 10 years ago. We met in Vancouver,

at the airport, on a trip that we were both taking

to China,

that I would actually, from my background,

I would call it a boondoggle.

Gabby would — GG: Fact-finding mission.

MK: She would call it an important fact-finding mission.

She was a state senator at the time,

and we met here, at the airport,

before a trip to China.

PM: Would you describe it as a whirlwind romance?

GG: No, no, no.

(Laughter)

A good friend.

MK: Yeah, we were friends for a long time.

GG: Yes. (Laughter)

MK: And then she invited me on, about a year or so later,

she invited me on a date.

Where'd we go, Gabby?

GG: Death row.

MK: Yes. Our first date was to death row

at the Florence state prison in Arizona,

which was just outside Gabby's state senate district.

They were working on some legislation

that had to do with crime and punishment

and capital punishment in the state of Arizona.

So she couldn't get anybody else to go with her,

and I'm like, "Of course I want to go to death row."

So that was our first date.

We've been together ever since. GG: Yes.

PM: Well, that might have contributed to the reason

that Gabby decided to marry you.

You were willing to go to death row, after all.

MK: I guess.

PM: Gabby, what did make you want to marry Mark?

GG: Um, good friends. Best friends. Best friends.

MK: I thought we always

had a very special relationship.

We've gone through some tough times

and it's only made it stronger. GG: Stronger.

PM: After you got married, however,

you continued very independent lives.

Actually, you didn't even live together.

MK: We had one of those commuter marriages.

In our case, it was Washington, D.C., Houston,

Tucson.

Sometimes we'd go clockwise,

sometimes counterclockwise,

to all those different places,

and we didn't really live together

until that Saturday morning.

Within an hour of Gabby being shot,

I was on an airplane to Tucson,

and that was the moment

where that had changed things.

PM: And also, Gabby, you had run for Congress

after being a state senator

and served in Congress for six years.

What did you like best

about being in Congress?

GG: Fast pace. Fast pace.

PM: Well it was the way you did it. GG: Yes, yes. Fast pace.

PM: I'm not sure people would describe it entirely that way.

(Laughter)

MK: Yeah, you know, legislation is often

at a colossally slow pace,

but my wife, and I have to admit,

a lot of other members of Congress that I know,

work incredibly hard.

I mean, Gabby would run around like a crazy person,

never take a day off,

maybe a half a day off a month,

and whenever she was awake she was working,

and she really, really thrived on that,

and still does today. GG: Yes. Yes.

PM: Installing solar panels on the top of her house,

I have to say.

So after the tragic incident, Mark,

you decided to resign

your position as an astronaut,

even though you were supposed to take

the next space mission.

Everybody, including Gabby,

talked you into going back,

and you did end up taking.

MK: Kind of. The day after Gabby was injured,

I called my boss, the chief astronaut,

Dr. Peggy Whitson, and I said,

"Peggy, I know I'm launching in space

in three months from now.

Gabby's in a coma. I'm in Tucson.

You've got to find a replacement for me."

So I didn't actually resign from being an astronaut,

but I gave up my job and they found a replacement.

Months later, maybe about two months later,

I started about getting my job back,

which is something,

when you become this primary caregiver person,

which some people in the audience here

have certainly been in that position,

it's a challenging role but at some point

you've got to figure out when you're going to get your life back,

and at the time, I couldn't ask Gabby

if she wanted me to go fly in the space shuttle again.

But I knew she was— GG: Yes. Yes. Yes.

MK: She was the biggest supporter of my career,

and I knew it was the right thing to do.

PM: And yet I'm trying to imagine, Mark,

what that was like, going off onto a mission,

one presumes safely, but it's never a guarantee,

and knowing that Gabby is —

MK: Well not only was she still in the hospital,

on the third day of that flight,

literally while I was

rendezvousing with the space station,

and you've got two vehicles moving at 17,500 miles an hour,

I'm actually flying it, looking out the window,

a bunch of computers,

Gabby was in brain surgery,