'She truly loved and embraced everybody': Family, friends remember Roberta Drury

"Robbie was more than just a name," said her sister, Amanda Drury. "We just want to make sure that everyone remembers her smile, her love, her compassion. Everyone was in her family."

Family and friends gathered Saturday morning at Assumption Church in Syracuse for a Mass of Christian Burial for 32-year-old Roberta Drury, who was one of the 10 people killed in a mass shooting May 14 when a white supremacist from the Southern Tier attacked the Tops supermarket at Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo where she, and many others, were just doing their grocery shopping on a beautiful spring day.

Hers was the second funeral to be held so far, after Heyward Patterson, a 67-year-old church deacon, was laid to rest Friday in Buffalo. More funerals for the victims will follow in the week ahead.

The Rev. Nicholas Spano led the Mass inside Assumption Church, a massive structure where those gathered were seated in wooden pews beneath imposing stone columns and arches. Light from candles flickered above them as the mourners consoled one another.

Spano repeatedly referred to Roberta and her loving nature as "light in the darkness."

The Rev. Daren Jaime of The People's A.M.E. Zion Church in Syracuse also spoke at Saturday's Mass, reminding friends and family that Drury lives on "through each and every one of you."

"Roberta reflected God's love every time she cared for her brother, every time she greeted someone on the street," Spano said.

Her aunt Lisa Drury said she will remember the hugs she would get from her niece, from the time she was a tiny baby who had just recently been adopted by Lisa Drury's brother Philip Drury and his then-wife, Leslie VanGiesen. 

"Remember her for her open arms," Lisa Drury said. 

Roberta Drury grew up in Cicero, a town north of Syracuse, and attended Cicero-North Syracuse High School. For the past 10 years, she lived in Buffalo, helping to take care of her brother Christopher Moyer, who is recovering from a battle with leukemia. She often helped her brother, his wife and his two children with tasks such as grocery shopping – often at the Tops where she was killed.

"It's almost ironic," Lisa Drury said, "because she was taken in such an act of hatred, and she truly loved and embraced everybody. If she was struggling in her life, she still loved on you."

Lisa Drury's son Mitch is just a little younger than Roberta, so there were plenty of family photos and time spent together in the early years at Lisa Drury's parents' house in North Syracuse. 

Her son just turned 32 years old Monday – the same age Roberta was.

"I'm looking at him thinking, his life is just beginning," said Lisa Drury. "It's just not fair. At 32 years old, you're just starting to come into yourself." 

Friends from Buffalo also made the trip for her funeral. One man, who said he was a cousin from Virginia, wore a shirt with Roberta's face on it – on the back, it read: "To my new guardian angel, watch over me."

Family and friends had gathered the day before for calling hours. Lisa Drury said they stayed together as a family until after 11 p.m., thinking back to all their memories with Roberta.

Amanda Drury said she will cherish her memories of their family's annual vacation, when 15 to 20 aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and sometimes childhood friends would hit the road for Wildwood, N.J. There, they'd rent a house, with everyone squished into bunk beds. They loved to go to a photography studio on the boardwalk, dressing up in old-timey clothes to take a family portrait, giggling the whole time. 

Roberta was always the one who convinced everyone to get in the water.

Amanda Drury described her sister as a lover of nature who enjoyed long walks and observing the world around her. 

For that reason, in lieu of flowers, the family prefers donations be made in Roberta's honor to the Buffalo Zoo – where Roberta and her sister would often go when Amanda Drury came to Western New York to visit.

In addition to Amanda Drury and Christopher Moyer, Roberta is survived by her parents; grandfather John Traeger; siblings Daniel Moyer, Nicole VanGiesen and Brett VanGiesen; and many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. 

And many more friends made along the way. 

"Everybody was Robbie's family," Amanda Drury said.