In Naya Rivera’s full life and legacy she leaves

And that, beyond the way she inspired teenagers who would otherwise have fallen through the cracks, beyond the accomplishments she leaves behind, could only be her greatest legacy.

She had only been in the parenting game for eight months when she pondered the life lessons she had already picked up, describing “those ‘aha’ moments about motherhood” that she constantly experienced chatting with Fit Pregnancy and Baby. “You will always wonder if you are doing something wrong, but that’s what being a mother means,” she said, “caring about someone so much that you just want to be as perfect as possible.”

It is a goal that those close to her say they have fully achieved. “Naya and Josey were incredibly close and very close,” said the Rivera insider. The actress never hesitated to clarify her schedule, for example to look for caterpillars with her little husband.

“I’m just really making sure to take my time and stay organized so that once I pick him up from school I can leave the rest of the day to us,” she told E! News from 2019. Whatever had to be done could just be put on hold: “Being a mother is always my top priority so everything else can somehow wait. Nothing is more important than that.”

– Additional coverage from Amanda Williams

(Originally published July 14, 2020 at 12 p.m. PT)