Student, 18, remembered as someone who ‘radiated love’
A lover of poetry, operas, friends, Aria Kamal was killed by her father
Last summer, Aria Kamal wrote that her purpose in life was to “open my heart and love.”
To those who knew her best, the words captured her very essence.
The 18-year-old wrote poetry about the beauty in the world and read novels that explored the complexities of humanity. She channeled her passion for music on stage, found solace in songwriters such as Samia and Weyes Blood, and savored the spectacle of operas.
Most of all, she listened without judgment to friends and reminded them often how much they meant to her.
Now, through their grief, Kamal’s loved ones are remembering how much she meant to them. Just days after Christmas, she was killed by her father, Rakesh Kamal, who also killed his wife, Teena, inside the family’s Dover home before taking his own life, officials said.
“I loved Aria very, very much. She was an extraordinarily gifted and wonderful person and I feel so lucky that our paths crossed,” said Owen, who met Kamal at Middlebury College, where she was a freshman. The two were in a relationship, and he asked that his last name not be used to protect his privacy. “The thing I loved most about her was that she just radiated love. She was kind to everyone she knew, and let her love shine into the world unconditionally.”
They struck a connection by sending each other song recommendations.
Soon, they were walking around campus together, gazing at the stars and sharing poetry. The last poem they read together was “Mysteries, Yes” by Mary Oliver, which opens with the line, “Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood.”
“We always talked about how we were so lucky to have met so early in college — that we had so much time together,” he said by email. “No one saw this coming. I am still shocked every
day. Please hold your loved ones as tight as you can.”
Before the tragedy, police said, they had no interactions with the family, and if there were trouble at home Kamal never let it show, said Sophie, a close friend from Milton Academy, where Kamal attended high school. “There was no indication from her recently that anything was wrong with her home life,” she said via email. She asked to only be identified by her first name.
During their junior year, Sophie and Kamal sat next to each other in English class every day. Sharing a taste for dry humor, they quickly became close. Kamal had a “witty irreverence” that Sophie admired and made her giggle so much she would kick her under the table to stop.
When the class was reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go,” Kamal offered a deft analysis that Sophie nodded along to, “as if I had had any clue who Ishiguro was prior to our class.”
“As I began to know her more, I started realizing what an incredibly special person she was,” Sophie said.
Sophie said she trusted Kamal to listen to her with an open mind and offer her insight. With an innate empathy, Kamal was an unwavering source of support for many friends, she said.
She stood out for her ability to be her true self without fear, another classmate recalled.
“Most importantly, she wasn’t afraid to show that she loved, something that I think most high schoolers were afraid to do,” the classmate said. “She meant so much to so many people, and I really hope she knew that.”
For a creative writing assignment during her senior year, Kamal wrote a narrative detailing her personal struggles and periods of isolation when she entered high school. By learning to find joy in small things and seeking out companionship, she described gaining a renewed appreciation for life.
“The love of life, of people, of the world, that she developed clearly didn’t come easily, which made me admire it even more,” Sophie said.
The friends hadn’t seen each other since graduating in June but called and texted regularly. During one of their last conversations, Sophie reached out to let Kamal know she was listening to “Linger” by The Cranberries, a band she loved. The friends reflected on “how truly happy we were for the first few months of college,” she said.
At Middlebury, where Kamal was studying neuroscience and involved in a range of student groups, including Women in Computer Science, the college choir, theatre, and a group for students interested in foraging, she was “finally finding her people,” Sophie said.
Kamal told her a lot about Owen and how good things were between them.
“I think the last few months of her life were the happiest she had been since I knew her,” she said.
“She wanted to fall in love and stay in love, to sing opera, to see lots of beautiful places, and to have kids someday, who she would have loved so well,” Sophie said.
Devastated by her death, Owen described Kamal as a “brilliant and unique person who had a wonderful and full life.”
“She saw all the good, and all the beauty, and had a wonderful gift in that she could make you see it, too,” he said. “She truly made you feel like the only person in the world when she spoke to you, love and light just radiated from her. She could hold her own in even the most niche topics of conversation and was one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.”
Many aspire to make the world a better place. But Kamal “really had the will and ability to do so,” Owen added.
“She would want us all to go on, to live twice as hard, and twice as beautifully, for her. And to hold the beauty of this world in our hearts. She knew that love would save us all,” he said.