Husband honors wife he lost in helicopter crash that also killed Kobe Bryant

Alright, now let's move on to a story about this International Women's Day that has to do with our next guest who celebrates the day to honor his late

wife

, an influential mother, teacher, coach and role model who had a tremendous impact in women in sports. Watch January 26, 2020, a Sunday like any other for the Mouser family,

wife

and mother of three, Christina Mauser, a dedicated physical education teacher and sports lover, left to coach a basketball game at the Mamba Sports Academy in the area Christina kissed her

husband

Matt of 14 years goodbye, both knowing he would return later that day.

She never came home. Christina was on that doomed

helicopter

flight that claimed the lives of all nine people on board, including NBA star Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, when it

crash

ed in Calabasas, California. Matt suffered. the definitive loss that day, losing the love of his life and the mother of his three young children. I want people to know that my wife and everyone on that plane loved what they did and always were, every time they were together, they always were. Happy Christina's memory lives on through her

husband

and children, more than a year after the accident.

Matt continues to carry on his legacy through the Christina Mauser Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing scholarships and support to young women in sports through the tremendous impact of the Christina Foundation. about women in sports will live on and matt bowser joins us now, welcome matt, good to see you again. The last time I saw you under very different circumstances, I think it was just a day after that accident where I spent time with you there. the house and Matt, I was always struck when I walked in to your little girl, who I think was three at the time, she had a big smile on her face, she was jumping around the house, she didn't really understand that mom wasn't going to do it.

Coming home, she didn't really understand it at the time, so tell me how are the kids, how are you now, a year later, well, thank you, no, yeah, that day was very, very challenging, obviously, and the children are fine. I know we're about as good as can be expected considering, you know, at school, you know, I do a lot of food prepping, I cut a lot of strawberries and I carpool a lot, but you know we try to find, you know, bits of joy and we try to Maintaining a little happiness is a challenge, but that is the goal, keeping the children happy, as you say, everyone is going through something and they have been something tremendous over the last year. but you have a foundation, the christina maurer foundation, that mauser foundation, that you're actually giving out scholarships, why did you want to go down this path?

Well, I appreciate you asking, thank you. Christina was an extremely generous human being from the moment I met her. she she supported me I'm a musician she supported me in my music and you can see in that photo right there that photo that she was always willing to give and she was um she gave me everything she had to me her family her children and her teams on their team and their players we're trying to find senior athletes athletes that embody some of the same principles that Christina had, which was team first, selflessness and putting others before yourself.

Christina was just that person and we are looking. For three high-level female athletes, one of them we will award to her alma mater Edison high school here in Huntington Beach and then we will look for another two across the country to award scholarships to and just continue her legacy of being that person. Who puts everyone first, Matt? I know that nothing is going to change. What is happening? But I have to ask you while we have you here because a few weeks ago we received the news that through the investigation it was determined that, in fact, they put everyone first.

The fault lies squarely with the pilot for what happened in that accident. This was not a mechanical error. It was poor decision making on the part of the pilot. Does it make any difference to you when you hear that news or how that news affected how you felt? Not last year, it's a good question, but it didn't change anything for us, my day to day life is taking care of my children and trying to bring them happiness and joy and being the best father I can be and that's all I can do, you just know it's that old serenity prayer, it's, give me the strength, you know, to know the things that I can control and I can't do anything from here.

So I just do the best I can do, the good thing we have and I've personally seen you do a lot of things. In that house, a happy house. I felt joy on what was actually one of the worst days, probably in that house. But but. Matt, thank you, congratulations on what you've been doing and what you're doing with the foundation to carry on your wife's legacy and her memory and the best for the kids too, man, and we'll talk. back on track okay buddy thanks if you could say go to mattmouser.com and you can make a donation to the christina mouser foundation.

It would be fantastic, absolutely, we'll make sure to do it. on our social media and on our website too, Matt, thank you so much brother, tj, it was a pleasure talking to you, thank you, I love how Matt described his wife, humble and powerful, always sums it up very well, he's a guy who he constantly brags about his wife, well hello GMA fans. Robin roberts here, thanks for watching our YouTube channel, there's a lot of great stuff here so click the subscribe button here for more great gma videos and content every day. Any time, we thank you for watching and we'll see. you in the morning on gma