Today marks 1-year anniversary of actress, singer and model Naya Rivera and Rivera’s family, friends and fans are remembering and honoring the actor a year after her death.
In conversation with ABC News’ Juju Chang, Naya’s mother Yolanda Previtire told that her family is in therapy to deal with their loss. She told, “Sometimes we’re afraid of the sorrow being so heavy that we’re afraid for our own self, ’cause this is hard. There are no words to describe what we’re going through,” Yolanda said. “All we know is we have each other.”
“I feel Naya’s energy constantly telling me, ‘Mom, be happy. Don’t cry. I’m OK. Go get Josey. Have fun.’ And I feel that it’s coming from her,” she said. “I literally wake up every morning, and it’s almost like a restart button, and I have to shake it off, one foot at a time. And here we are.”
Recalling the day of her death, Yolanda told how she missed facetime calls from her daughter, and the last time she saw her was on Facetime. She told, “I missed two of her FaceTime calls, and I called her back. And we had a beautiful conversation. The sun was kissing her face and she was just beautiful… She had a white, beautiful swimming suit on and she was glowing.”
Naya’s sister Nickayla said “if we could go back, we’d hug a little bit harder.” On the other hand, Naya’s little brother, Mychal, said in a statement: “One year without you, one year closer to when we will meet you again. Your endless energy lives on. May you continue to rest so graciously, Naya.”
Naya Rivera, the actress, famously known for her role in “Glee”, died on 8th July 2020. Rivera was reported to be missing when she was out with her son on a boat in California’s Lake Piru. The research crew had found her 4-year-old son Josey alone sleeping on the boat, who told the police that after they went for swimming, Rivera told him get back to the boat and climbed him up. However, she couldn’t get on the boat and struggled for a while. According to Josey, his mother did not have a life jacket on and then disappeared in the water.
As the search team looked for Naya, she was presumed dead on 8th July 2020, and her body was found on 13th July by the divers in the lake. According to Rivera’s autopsy reports, the cause of her death was accidental drowning.