Image Source: Cosmopolitan, People.com
Glee actress Naya Rivera’s sister Nickayla Rivera is now opening up about how is the entire family especially her holding up after Naya who passed away in July 2020 as a result of a drowning accident at Lake Piru in Southern California.
The actress would have turned 35 years old on Monday i.e., January 12th, 2022, and her sister Nickayla took to her YouTube channel to share an update on her modeling career, Naya’s sudden passing away, and much more. She started by saying, "I lost a lot of confidence in myself. I wanted to get out of this dark place that I was mentally, and I felt like 2020 was going to be my year." But the pandemic happened.
Nickayla said, "In July of 2020, my sister Naya passed away. And when that happened, I was in complete shock. My whole family was in complete shock. It was like someone pulled the rug from under us and we didn't see it coming. The dark place that I was in before only progressed when that happened. At that time, I had no thoughts of my future. I had no thoughts of myself really. I was only just experiencing pain." The 28-year-old Nickayla shared that she realized that the pain she was experiencing was not going to go away itself but only if she decided to find the good in the world and thus, she went on a whole discovering herself journey to heal herself.
Nickayla shared that her first step was to stop vaping, a habit that she picked up two years ago and it was really hard for her to stop but when she decided to quit, she felt quite empowered because of her decision. "I felt like I could do anything after that. I picked up journaling and started writing about my feelings. I started therapy. I said no to doing a lot of things that I didn't want to do, but normally would for other people. I started putting myself first. I became mindful and observed how I felt each day”, she added.
Sudden passing away of her sister led Nickayla to appreciate every single moment of her life and she shared, “I started asking myself the tough questions of, what's stopping me from being myself? What past hurt am I still holding onto? And why am I not living like every day is a gift? Because it is. When I started answering all those questions honestly to myself, and I stopped the act, I stopped lying, I stopped pretending, I found myself. I can say that I am a completely changed person.”
Nickayla had paid tribute to Naya by writing a heartfelt caption for her, "There are no words to describe my love for you. Side by side or miles apart, our connection is infinite. Our bond is unbreakable. We were complete opposites, yet simultaneously the same. The yin to my yang. I never knew that by losing you, I would find so much of you in myself. I've never known a life without you in it & still can't imagine it. My world is turned upside down. But through it all, everything we were, we are still. I'll always look at you with the same eyes as I did when I was young”.
Naya's sister finally added, "Before I looked at life like it was a burden because of small, minute things that in the grand scheme of things, don’t matter. Now I look at life for what it is: an opportunity to show the world who you are, for your authentic self and nothing less. They say we only have one life, so live it. But I feel like we only have one day. We only have one moment. The next moment is not promised, so live this moment like you stole it.”
Ryan Dorsey with whom Naya shared now, 6-year-old son, Josey also paid tribute to his ex-late wife on her 35th birthday by writing, "She knew how willing Josey was to share his things but she'd be so proud to see how he'll give things he loves away to friends or donate them. He has this unique literal laugh-out-LOUD cackle of laugh when he's watching TV that's kind of obnoxiously endearing like hers was, but his even more so. No matter your mood, it would make anyone smile if you heard it. At least once a day I find myself shaking my head, like it's still unbelievable, so surreal that she's gone. She'd be freaking out today, I could almost hear her: 'OMG, I'm almost 40! It's hard to write this, tears coming out my eyes. Unf---ing real."
Nickayla moved in with Ryan after Naya’s tragic drowning to help him raise her nephew. As soon as the reports of the two moving in together came out, rumors of the two being romantically involved started to spiral after which in September 2020, Ryan broke down and asked people to stop making assumptions. Ryan said, “It's truly sad that this is the world that we live in where people were raised to think it's OK to spew hatred, in general, especially when they make statements about a family who are dealing with a tragedy that I hope is so unimaginable that you or anyone that is close to you ever has to go through. [Josey] asks me if Titi can live with us. 'I want Titi to live with us forever,' because she's now the closest thing he has to a mom.”
Father of six-year-old, Ryan added, “It's a temporary situation. After all that he's had to go through how could you deny him that? Because of what? What some strangers might think or say, or spew some hatred based on some ill-advised, ill-logical, misinformed tabloid?”
