LOS ANGELES — Lauren Goodwin had only just arrived in her new neighborhood when she walked past one of its perks.
On a stroll through West Hollywood a few weeks ago, she’d spotted the “Mamba on Melrose” mural, and there was Kobe Bryant, a presence in her life again the way he’d so often seemed to be.
Like Bryant, Goodwin was a Philadelphia native and now an L.A. transplant. She’d long been a passionate Bryant fan who watched his games and tracked his career. And when she saw him painted larger than life on the side of Shoe Palace that day, it was like finding a piece of home.
She returned there on Sunday, wearing dark sunglasses and dabbing underneath them with a balled-up tissue, wiping the tears that welled in her eyes. It had been a few hours since she’d learned Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others had been killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, and a walk to work through her emotions had led her back to the Mamba…
