BUENA VISTA, Va. – A kayaker who died this weekend in Rockbridge County is being fondly remembered.
The body of Octavia Richardson, 20, was found Sunday afternoon in the James River near Locher Landing in Glasgow.
“It’s just a lot. We just don’t understand and it’s something that I don’t think we’ll ever understand,” said Wanda Asinor, Richardson’s aunt. “Octavia was just 20, she turned 20 in August. She had her whole life ahead of her.”
According to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Richardson and a friend were kayaking on Saturday evening when Richardson’s kayak tipped over and she went into the water.
That begin a search that lasts well into the night Saturday and most of the day on Sunday.
“We just kept yelling and yelling and yelling for her, because we thought she was somewhere near,” Asinor said. “You had that sense she was still here.”
Asinor, other relatives and friends of Richardson have been gathering at the family home in Buena Vista, the site of so many memories but also so much grief.
“We just lost our brother earlier this year. and now Octavia,” Asinor said. “It’s just a lot for us to process because she’s so young. and everybody loved her.”
Richardson’s friend Emily Clark said they first met in Pre-K and were inseparable ever since.
“Always reach out to your loved ones because you never know when it’s genuinely going to be the last time you talk to them,” Clark said. “I have so many pictures and videos of us. but I’d give anything just to hear her voice once in person one last time. a piece of me is gone with her now.”
Services for Richardson are pending. Her body was brought to Roanoke for an autopsy.
Neither Richardson nor the friend were wearing life jackets.