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Sweet video shows Naya Rivera singing with her young son

A former "Glee" director and a former co-star both shared a sweet video in remembrance of Naya Rivera that shows the actor singing with her 4-year-old son.
/ Source: TODAY

Friends of Naya Rivera are sharing a video in memory of the former "Glee" star that encapsulates her vibrant spirit and love for her young son.

Director Adam Shankman and her former "Glee" co-star Amber Riley each posted a clip on Instagram Tuesday of Rivera joyfully singing the children's song "Skidamarink" with her 4-year-old son, Josey, before sharing a sweet kiss at the end.

"My favorite duet partner," Riley wrote. "I love you. I miss you. I don’t have words right now, just lots of feelings. Rest In Peace Angel, and know that your family will never have to worry about anything."

"People keep asking me what was @nayarivera like and how will you remember her," Shankman captioned the video. "This post answers both questions."

Their remembrances of the "Glee" star and former child actor came after the Ventura County Sheriff's Office announced on Monday that it was “confident” it had recovered Rivera's body in a California lake. On Tuesday afternoon, the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed the body was Rivera's, adding that the cause of death is drowning and the manner of death is accident.

The 33-year-old actor was found five days after Rivera had been reported missing when she went out on a pontoon boat with her son on Lake Piru, about 50 miles north of Los Angeles.

Several members of the "Glee" cast traveled to Lake Piru on Monday morning and held hands on the shore around the same time authorities had located the body.

Rivera's love for her son may have saved his life. Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said at a press conference Monday that Josey described being boosted back into the boat by his mother after the two went swimming, and then he looked back and saw her go under the surface of the water.

"There are a lot of currents on the lake that appear particularly in the afternoon,” he said. “The idea perhaps being that the boat started drifting — it was unanchored — and that she mustered enough energy to get her son back on the boat but not enough to save herself."

Shankman also wrote a separate heartfelt remembrance of Rivera on Instagram Monday in which he thanked her for being his friend and recalled how much she loved her son.

"I keep pouring through the pictures of our years together, and all we seemed to do was laugh,'' he wrote. "Unending, hearty, belly laughing. From glee where we bonded so quickly over me painting your head black and covering you in blood red lipstick to play 'the lips' in The Rocky Horror Glee show (as of last week we were still laughing about that insanity), to you saying yes to starring in @stepupseries at first as a favor and then becoming the mother of that whole cast and crew who loved and worshiped you.

"And sweet sweet Josey. The love of your life. You were one of the most ferocious and loving mothers I have ever seen and that’s what Josey will remember. That, how beautiful you were, how kind and fun, and how much you laughed. I miss you mama. I miss you too much."