"I will get stronger. I will return" to Congress, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, (D-Ariz.), vows in a new book she has written with her husband about the devastating injuries she received last Jan. 8 when a gunman opened fire during an event she was hosting in Tucson.
It's one of the surest signs yet that she intends to remain in politics and seek re-election next year.
Six people were killed and 12 others were wounded by the lone gunman that attacked Giffords' meet-and-greet. Giffords was shot in the head.
The Associated Press, which reports it purchased a copy of Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope even though the book isn't officially on sale until Nov. 15, writes that it "details months of intense therapy and her emotional battle to come to terms with what happened."
According to the AP, now-retired astronaut Mark Kelly, Giffords husband, recalls in the book "trying to tell his wife several times what had happened that Jan. 8 morning, when Giffords was shot in the head while meeting constituents. But she didn't fully understand until March 12."
And it was months later when she was told the names of those who died. The AP says that Kelly "warned her that it would be tough on her because she knew two of the victims. He started by telling her that her staff member Gabe Zimmerman died, which caused her to moan and cry in a wave of emotion. Then he told her about her friend, federal Judge John Roll, and the four other people she didn't know. Finally, he told her that Christina Taylor-Green, a 9-year-old girl born on Sept. 11, 2001, was among the dead. After she got the news, Kelly writes that he held her as she processed the information and wept."
Giffords, who is still recovering from her injuries, has visited Washington since the shooting. In August, she thrilled her fellow House members when she appeared to vote on a bill to raise the federal debt ceiling.
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