A page for Tori's friends.

Tori left behind many, many friends. She was a very kind person who... seemed to get along with everyone! She was very well loved among friends and is greatly missed today. You can see photos of Tori with her friends on the Friends & Family Photos page.

Her friends have found ways of honoring her. For example, her best friend Evelyne wrote a beautiful song for graduation in Tori's memory. Other friends have written poems and dedications.

Several of Tori's friends have made their own online memorials for her. Everyone seems to have such wonderful stories and memories to share of their great friend. :-)

Some of Tori's friends were involved with the project at her high school to create the Shakespeare's Flower Garden memorial. Many others have left flowers, notes, and stuffed animals at her roadside memorial.

All of Tori's friends have found some way to remember her, and you will see evidence throughout this website. You can find more things like this on the Woodbridge High School page.

A friend of Tori's named Tamara Skis wrote this essay about her.

As a day well spent brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death." (Leonardo da Vinci) This quote can inspire anyone to keep their life full of interesting and eventful activities. Tori didn't have that quote to inspire her, all she had was life as her inspiration. Sadly her source of inspiration expired on her.

Anyone who ever knew or met Tori would agree she was a bright girl. Not just bright as in smart, but bright as a rainbow. Red symbolizes the blood that ran through her gigantic heart. Orange can be corresponded to her outgoing and vibrant clothing choice. Yellow, like the color from the shining sun, reproduces her captivating smile. Green is the color of the earth, which she was very "down to" as the saying goes. Blue is the color of the sky, in which she and her thoughts fly. Purple is the color of nobility, possessed by her in every aspect of life, for she was faithful and true. She was God's promise to the world. As a young aspiring writer who could write anything prolifically, she spoke to people through her poems. After her passing, she spoke to us all through excerpts of her journal, and we were able to get a more in-depth look into her world of words.

Back to Leonardo da Vinci, the artist. Tori was an artist as well. She could sculpt words and ideas into masterpieces out minds more than loved. She used these talents in such ways that permeated everyone such as the school news report. Her art didn't just go to words, but infiltrated all aspects of her life. Graceful as a dancer, she learned to move her body in the art of field hockey. This sport was a passion and one could see the fire in her eyes as she ran down the field. Her artistic ability also stretched to acting and theater. She wrote some of her own mini plays and starred as a lead in a school production. Miming was an art form she didn't have to study, for her body language always said more than it needed. She wasn't afraid to paint her own image either. She wasn't a conformist nor was she a noncomformist. Somehow she found a happy medium and for that, all liked her.

It was once suggested that if God were to ever get writer's cramp and handed the pen to Tori, she would write in all the "corny" details of our lives that we may take for granted. There would be endless parades of what has become to be called (by my friends and I) as "Tori moments." These are moments when your mouth says something before your brain can truly comprehend. There would also be photographs and video to document the insignificant events that make life worth living. No small party would be forgotten; no absent-minded saying would be unwritten.

As a friend from childhood, a loss such as this has had some influences. Everyday on my way to school I see where her accident took place and I feel humbled. Classes that I once had with her are now incomplete. The fire of our senior class extinguished on that day.

October 15, 1986, Tori came into this world and for seventeen years she made everyday of her life count. She faced challenges with a never fading smile. So even though her smile is no longer present, its warmth is still felt in the heart of those she touched. According to da Vinci's quote, she's in a happy death for a life well used.