Naya Rivera’s mother Yolanda has recalled their last phone call before her tragic death.
The actress, who played Santana Lopez in the hit TV series Glee, drowned on July 8 last year while swimming with her son Josey at Lake Piru in Southern California.
Speaking to Good Morning America on the first anniversary of her daughter’s death, Yolanda revealed she spoke to Naya via FaceTime while she was out on the lake.
She said: “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.”
Yolanda revealed she took screenshots of the call with Naya and Josey, adding: “Thank God I took the pictures, because they were able to look at the topography of the land to locate where they were.”
She recalled telling her daughter “the water’s gettin’ choppy” and told them to go to a cove as the water tends to be “a little bit calmer” there.
Yolanda asked Naya to call her when they got off the water but a few hours later, detectives showed up at Yolanda’s house to inform her that her daughter was missing.
“It was almost like a force. I don’t know what it was, but I literally was just pushed backwards. I just ran backwards, if you can imagine, just screaming and I ended up in the bathroom. I slammed the door, I was on the floor and I had to gather myself,” she said.
Naya’s younger sister Nickayla described the five days of searching for Naya as “absolute hell”, and and called the moment they found Naya’s body “a relief, in a way.”
When asked what keeps her family going after such a tragic loss, Nickayla said they simply take things “one day at a time”.
She explained: “And taking that one day at a time and living it to the fullest, loving each other to the fullest, and not regretting anything. Because I know if we could go back, we’d hug a little bit harder.”
Naya’s younger 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.”
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Yolanda continued: “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.”
“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.”
Naya was declared missing on July 8, after her then 4-year-old son Josey was found sleeping on their rented pontoon boat in the middle of Lake Piru.
Five days later, the 33-year-old’s body was found – and she was laid to rest in a private funeral attended by her family at Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in the Hollywood Hills on July 24.
