4:50 pm UTC Jan. 8, 2021
Unbidden, Gabby Giffords broke into song.
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound," she began in a clear voice, a broad smile on her face. It is a favorite hymn, one she was shown playing on her French horn in a clip at the Democratic National Convention last summer. "That saved a wretch like me."
The former Arizona congresswoman had been talking to USA TODAY about the difficult, momentous year of pandemic and politics, one that ended with the election of her husband, Mark Kelly, to the U.S. Senate seat once held by John McCain.
But she was also talking about the difficult, momentous decade since she was grievously wounded by a gunman at a listening session she was holding outside a Tucson Safeway. On that Saturday morning, six others who had gathered to see her were killed. Their assailant would be sentenced to life in prison.