A page for Tori's high school; Woodbridge.

Tori was a wonderful student. She loved to learn, and she had many friends at school. She was very involved with school activities and was a member of many clubs.

Because Woodbridge is a pretty small school, the students tend to be very close. So naturally, the whole school has taken the time to recognize and remember their fallen friend. :-) Tori's step-father even told me that the school had recently named a cheese sandwich after her (remember, Tori's a vegetarian)!

Key Club began building the Shakespeare's Flower Garden memorial in her honor. Tori had a love for literature and for theatre; so the name was appropriate. Other students took part in the construction of this great memorial, as well.

Tori was also involved with yearbook. In fact, the day of her death, she was at school all day working on the yearbook. At the end of the school year, this special book was dedicated to her. She would have loved knowing this, because yearbook was very important to her.

Field hockey was also very important to her. She loved it; it was her sport. She was very close with her teammates and was saddened as the season came to a close just a few weeks prior to her accident. Tori didn't mind whether they won or how much she got to play; so long as she had fun. I was told that the athletic department even retired her number, 3, as a memorial to her. She is missed.

Tori was no doubt in everyone's thoughts for what would have been her high school graduation in June of 2004. She was so excited about it that she had begun planning her speech in the summer of the previous year! Her good friend Joey read this speech at the ceremonies. Tori's friends from video production class created a special tribute video to her for the end of school year, as well. She may have been gone, but she was certainly not forgotten.

This is Tori's senior speech.

You guys are my soul mates. And though we may not be together in the future, our hearts and souls are spiritually, magically forever together, eventually in spirit. Our love is true and pure and forever innocent.

Secret-- I don't really hate this town. Growing up I always despised living in such a hole of a place, shut out from the rest of the world. It was almost as if Bridgeville never really existed and we were living in this pretend dream world that never really existed outside.

But there's nothing like saying goodbye to bring you to reality...

We are so lucky to live in such a place. And it is like a fantasy because there is no other place in the world like Woodbridge. We didn't have cool hangouts, but we had so much more. Just like the child who makes a castle out of the tower of tires in the playground, we made our own adventures out of our lives. And we have become stronger, more imaginitive people because of it. Our lives were not handed to us; we had to create our adventures and here we are about to enter a world where new people and places we have never encountered may present themselves on every corner.

What we must remember is to keep that magical part of us. Please take time to escape back to a world where life wasn't so rushed, minds weren't so small, towns weren't so big, and love wasn't so... hard? A time of eternal innocence, growth and adventure; where we spent hot days by the baseball dugouts with our first love; a time of first kisses; a time when innocence and purity prospered.

Wherever the road takes (you) I hope every night when you sleep or every other night for those of you who have "party animal" written in your future, when you do finally sleep... I hope your mind escapes to this dream world and you fondly remember Woodbridge.

I ask you not to dwell in the past but to embrace it. Hold it in your hand, hug it, kiss it, breathe it into your body; let your heart fill with and let your soul fly with it and let that comfort you in your bed at night.

This is a photo of Tori taken a few weeks before her death during spirit week. As you can see, she had great school spirit! This photo shows a lot of her personality.