The NBA legend and his teenage daughter died last year in a helicopter crash.
Vanessa Bryant is trying to find "the light in darkness." Just over a year after the helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna "Gigi" Bryant, Vanessa is doing her best to move forward.
"This pain is unimaginable, [but] you just have to get up and push forward. Lying in bed crying isn't going to change the fact that my family will never be the same again," Vanessa tells People. "But getting out of bed and pushing forward is going to make the day better for my girls and for me. So that's what I do."
The girls she's referring to are her and Kobe's three other daughters, Natalia, 18, Bianka, 4, and Capri, 1.
"My girls help me [keep] smiling through the pain. They give me strength," she says. "I want to make Kobe, Gigi, Natalia, Bianka and Capri proud."
While her daughters give her strength, Vanessa isn't immune to some hard days. "I can't say that I'm strong every day," she admits. "I can't say that there aren't days when I feel like I can't survive to the next."
But continue on she does, a fact she credits to her late husband and daughter.
"Kobe and Gigi motivate me to keep going. They inspire me to try harder and be better every day," she says. "Their love is unconditional and they motivate me in so many different ways."
Prior to the January anniversary of Kobe and Gianna's deaths, a source told ET that "Vanessa and her daughters have gotten stronger over the past year, but there are days when it's much harder for them as it comes in waves."
"Vanessa plans to continue to honor Kobe and Gianna's legacy," the source added. "She has some projects in the works to do so."
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