Photo: Ryan Dorsey/Instagram
Ryan Dorseyis rememberingNaya Riverawith love this Mother’s Day.
The actor, 38, took toInstagramMonday to reflect on how the holiday feels as he grieves his late ex-wife, with whom he shares sonJosey, 6. TheGleeactressdiedin July 2020 at age 33 as aresult of a drowning accident.
Ryan Dorsey/Instagram
Comparing his childhood to his son’s, he continued, “Flashes of memories of me as a little boy at his age w/ my mom turned into some gratitude for the years I’ve had & still have, turns into the times my son & I had with his and how they were stopped… I know how this day is going to go. Plenty of time for water works, but not now. I fight it & up I get.”
Writing about driving through Los Angeles, Dorsey said that many places remind him of Rivera, from where she lived when they first met to where they once shared a meal.
“Turning onto Forest Lawn Drive will alway bring the memory of two summers ago,” he wrote of pulling into the cemetery in Hollywood Hills. “But the memories prior to that I have to be grateful for & our son.”
Later in the post, he concluded, “Hug your mommas and grandmas, and love ‘em while you can. Forgive & forget, if you can. You don’t wanna maybe wish what if you did one day.❤️🖤”
Dorsey, who wasmarriedto Rivera from 2014 to 2018, paid tribute to the mother of his son on what would have been her 35th birthday in January, in a statement shared withPEOPLE.
Ryan Dorsey/instagram
“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,” Dorsey said at the time.
“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!’ " he added. “It’s hard to write this, tears coming out my eyes. Unf—ing real.”
In July 2020, Rivera and Josey rented a boat at Lake Piru in Southern California. When the boat was not returned on time, staff found it on the north side of the lake with Josey sleeping in his life jacket on board, but the mom was not with her child.
In June 2021, Rivera’sfather George Rivera told PEOPLEthat his late daughter was “looking forward to so many things” in her future.
“She loved being a mother and you could see the maturity and satisfaction that Josey brought. It was a good time for her,” he said.
source: people.com
