In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a candle light vigil was held for Ariana Toro, the woman who died after being swept off rocks at the end of Santa Cruz Avenue in Ocean Beach January 21st. The vigil was held on Saturday, the 29th, as co-workers of Toro mourned her loss.
Meanwhile, in Ocean Beach, a debate has developed in our pages over how to respond to her death and the other injuries and fatalities along Sunset Cliffs, and Santa Cruz beach itself.
We offer the following report of the vigil as a way for OBceans to get to know the actual person who died off our cliffs …. from Baton Rouge channel 9CBS:
A candle light vigil was held on January 29 to honor a recent LSU graduate who died in San Diego after a large wave swept her and a second woman into the sea.
Co-workers came together to honor a friend from Capital City Grill, where Adriana Toro worked. They say it was a celebration of her life.
Shabrion Hawkins, Service Manager at Capital City Grill, downtown says Toro was that person who made everything better with just a smile.
“She brought this happiness out of you that you didn’t even know was there and she had that influence over she met, very, very happy all the time,” says co-worker Torri Hebert.
Another co-worker of Toro, Tiana Scioneaux, said Toro was always smiling. She even remembers her saying that the last night she went out in Baton Rouge, “if you all don’t come, I’m not talking to any of ya’ll anymore.”
Friends of Toro say she had been working at Capital City Grill while attending LSU for almost two years, saving up money as a waitress to live out her dream to move to the West Coast.
“If there was something she wanted, she would go after it and get it and do whatever she had to do, to get there, like moving to San Diego,” said Hebert.
Toro had only been in San Diego a week before she was pulled into the ocean by a large wave while walking along the beach. She was rescued by lifeguards and taken to a nearby hospital where she later died.
“Just to know that she will not be here on the Earth anymore not doing anything, that’s the part that really hurts everybody,” Scioneaux added.
Friends say her legacy will continue and they have learned to laugh and love life because of their friendship with Toro.
Lastly, Hawkins says you couldn’t take Toro’s joy away, no matter what it was, no matter what she faced, she was always a happy positive person. She says she is blessed to have known her, she was just an awesome person.
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So tragic.