Ryan Dorsey has shared an emotional tribute for his late ex-wife, Glee’s Naya Rivera, in honour of Mother’s Day which took place in the US this past weekend.
Ryan and Naya were married for four years and share one son together, six-year-old Josey. Josey was with his mum in July 2020 when she tragically drowned in Lake Piru, California.
Taking to social media this morning, Dorsey shared a heartfelt post, talking about how difficult he finds this annual holiday as he thinks about Naya and little Josey.
“I woke up thinking about so much. Josey with his grandma & me by myself. I don’t text Happy Mothers Day b/c that seems like an insane thing to do considering,” Ryan explained, adding that he spent some of Mother’s Day visiting his “least favourite place in the world,” Naya’s resting place.
“I know how this day is going to go. Plenty of time for water works, but not now. I fight it & up I get,” the 38-year-old dad wrote.
“On the way there’s places I pass that bring back times. This is where we took him when he was little that one time…Damn, we had dinner there. That’s the street I used to live on when we first met…she used to live there on Magnolia.”
“Flowers sold out where I used to always get them. I’ll just get some on the way… I miss my exit as I feel like I didn’t blink for 10 minutes as my mind was wandering with so many flashes. The harder I think about things, it’s harder to believe.”
“Un-fu*king-believable, still that this is reality. That this is our real life and I have to blink hard & shake my head as if to snap out of it & grasp the facts of it all once and for all.”
Dorsey continued, “Turning onto Forest Lawn Drive will always bring the memory of two summers ago. But the memories prior to that I have to be grateful for & our son. So I have my time & my talk & shed my tears.”
“Talk about the dumb shit that set us apart. Thinking about regrets & how life could be, but how it is. Then I have to go on with my day and…that’s all we can do is go on, go on while we can.”
Concluding this heartfelt tribute, Ryan encouraged his followers to hug their own mums and grandmothers and “love ‘em while you can. Forgive & forget, if you can. You don’t wanna maybe wish what if you did one day.”
Alongside this emotional message, Ryan also shared a series of rare photos featuring Josey and Naya, including candid shots of the Glee actress reading to her little boy, the two of them grinning at the camera, Naya giving her son a piggyback, the pair of them blowing out candles on a birthday cake and a lovely photo of Josey with his grandmother.
At the end of his photo carousel, Ryan included a sombre snap of Naya’s gravestone, which read, “Naya M. Rivera, 1987 - 2020, Amazing mother, daughter, sister and friend, Heaven gained our sassy angel.”
