Aunt of shooting victim Roberta Drury: 'We're trying to make sense of something that is so senseless'

"Hi Aunt Val!" Wilcox can recall Drury exclaiming on more than a few occasions. 

"You knew when she was around," Wilcox added.

But now, Wilcox and her family – like so many other families grieving loved ones in the wake of Buffalo's worst mass shooting Saturday – are left grasping for memories of all the times Drury was around. Drury, 32, was one of the 10 people killed when an 18-year-old white supremacist arrived Saturday afternoon at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue and started shooting.

The victims: What we know about those killed, injured in Tops shooting

Wilcox's memories of that "sweet, sweet girl" began when her sister and her sister's then-husband legally adopted Drury at a young age. Drury grew up in Cicero, a town north of Syracuse, and attended Cicero-North Syracuse High School.

"The news of the shooting so close to home is devastating enough, but to learn that a member of our NorthStar family fell victim to an extremist act of hate, is unfathomable," Daniel Bowles, North Syracuse Central School District superintendent of schools, said in a statement. "Our hearts are broken by news of the despicable act and they go out to the families and friends of Roberta and all the victims."

Wilcox's daughter, Jocelyn, was about the same age as Drury, so there were plenty of sleepovers and birthday parties growing up.

There also was a family vacation every year, with 15 to 20 aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and sometimes childhood friends hitting the road for Wildwood, N.J. There, they rented a house, with everyone squished into bunk beds. They all would go to a photography studio on the boardwalk, dressing up in old clothes and taking a family portrait, giggling the whole time. 

In Wildwood, Drury was the one who convinced everyone to get in the water and ensured all spent quality time together, said her sister, Amanda Drury.

Amanda Drury said her sister, who she called Robbie, was never afraid to talk to anyone, usually the first one to walk up and say, "hello" to someone new. She made friends everywhere she went, Amanda Drury said via text.

"Her death is such a loss because her vibrancy set a tone," Amanda Drury wrote, "and gatherings with her were always boisterous and loving."

When Roberta Drury was about 19 or 20 years old, she moved to Buffalo, where Drury's older brother, Christopher, lives. Roberta was between jobs and offered to move here to help Christopher with anything he needed in his battle with leukemia, a fight that has led to bone marrow transplants. His battle continues today, and he often needs to go to the hospital.

So Drury would always help Christopher, his wife and his two children with tasks such as grocery shopping – often at the Tops where she was killed Saturday.

The family is planning a wake on Friday and a funeral Saturday in the Syracuse area.

In recent days, Drury's aunt has thought of the other families she's seen on TV after tragedies in other cities, families – like hers – that never thought something like this would happen to them.

"We're trying to make sense of something that is so senseless," Wilcox said.