‘Always smiling’: Las Vegas mother remembers daughter after NLV shooting

“Look at her smile,” Sherlyn Faria said, gazing down at old school photos of her daughter, Jeannette Faria. “She was always smiling. Always.”

Jeannette Faria, 22, was one of five victims killed in a North Las Vegas shooting on June 24.

“She’s an awesome daughter, awesome big sister, granddaughter, niece, friend,” her mother said. In many ways, Sherlyn Faria, 47, said she feels her daughter is still there with her family. “She just lit up the room.”

A devoted older sister to two brothers and “daddy’s girl” to the man who raised her, Jason Lakey, Jeannette Faria was an aspiring dental hygienist with a bright future ahead, her mother said.

“In 10 years, she’d be sitting in a chair cleaning somebody’s teeth and still living her best life,” Sherlyn Faria said in an interview at her home in Las Vegas.

As she remembers and honors her daughter, she said she is cherishing all of the little memories. “The laughter, the tears,” she said. “Just all of it.”

A dedicated daughter and student

Jeannette Faria graduated high school in 2019, according to her mother. She was initially studying to become a medical assistant but decided to pivot, instead studying to become a dental hygienist, all while working two jobs.

“Her daddy and I are so proud of her,” her mother said, adding that her daughter was very driven. “She’s a go-getter. She got that from her dad.”

While working jobs at Amazon and FedEx, her daughter always called every night, Sherlyn Faria said.

“This is my mini best friend,” she said. “I’m that mom who always wanted a daughter, and then when she grew up we could be best friends. And we were.”

As Jeannette Faria got older, her mother said their conversations were “more grown up,” and her daughter would share a lot more with her about her life.

All the same, “even at 22 years old, she would just come and sit on my lap” when she was sitting on the couch, Sherlyn Faria said.

And when Sherlyn Faria would come home from work, she often found her daughter lying in her mother’s room. When she would ask why, Jeannette Faria would respond, “Because I just love your bed. It’s so comfy, and it smells like you.”

One big, supportive village

Sherlyn Faria carries memories of her daughter in ink, on her left arm. A tattoo of her name, Jeannette, accompanies one written in her daughter’s handwriting that reads “I love you mommie.”

A matching tattoo in Sherlyn Faria’s handwriting was positioned on Jeannette’s same arm, she said.

Remembering Mother’s Days past, Sherlyn Faria said her children used to cook meals for her in the kitchen. But when Jeannette Faria was old enough to drive, they would take her to dinner.

Her daughter always used to say that she had reason to be celebrated on Mother’s Day too. “I’m the reason you’re a mom, you had me first,” her mother remembers her saying.

She said her daughter was wholehearted and generous. “She’d give you the shirt off her back,” she said.

This was particularly the case when it came to Jeannette Faria’s two younger brothers, Jason, 18, and Jayden, 14. She taught them how to swim and used to take Jayden to get his hair cut.

“She called herself their second mom,” Sherlyn Faria said. While Jeannette Faria never wanted children herself, the kids in the family would “gravitate towards her,” she said.

Similarly, Jeannette Faria was also surrounded by supportive family members, her mother said. “I always say it takes a village to raise these kids. Our village is huge. Her dad and I are very grateful for all of the help we’ve had with these kids,” she said.

‘Good heads on their shoulders’

In the past year, Sherlyn Faria said that her daughter’s girlfriend, Kayla Harris, had been a big part of her life. Harris, 24, was another victim of the North Las Vegas shooting.

Harris had met her girlfriend’s mother several times, including visiting her house for Christmas. “We all woke up Christmas morning and made breakfast,” Sherlyn Faria said.

Jeannette Faria had loved to travel, her mother said, and frequently visited Harris at her school in Colorado. “Mommy, I’m going out of town,” her mother remembered her saying on the phone every few weeks.

She had rules for her daughter when she traveled: text from the airport and text during boarding. “She’s 22, but you know, I don’t care. Still my baby,” Sherlyn Faria said.

Not long before the shooting, the couple took Sheryln Faria out to dinner, out of the blue, she said.

“We all went to dinner, and it was really nice. And she told me, ‘Yeah, I just told Kayla I feel like I need to see my mom today, so let’s go take my mom out to dinner.’ And that’s what they did,” Sherlyn Faria said.

“They both definitely had good heads on their shoulders,” she added.

‘Ah hui hou’

Sherlyn Faria said the family is trying to give Jeannette Faria a “proper see you later.” “I don’t like the word ‘goodbye,’” she said.

Sherlyn Faria is from Hawaii, where her own mother still lives. She took her daughter to visit several times.

“Back home, we say ah hui hou,” she said. “It means see you later.”

On Thursday, Sherlyn Faria remembered being in her house, alone. “It was just very calming, very peaceful,” she said. She had been ignoring her phone and suddenly felt her daughter’s presence.

“She was just telling me, ‘Mommy, it’s going to be OK. I’m here. I’m not gone. I’m gone, but I’m not gone, I’m here. It’s going to be OK, mommy, I got you,’” she said.

The family will be honoring Jeannette Faria’s life privately. “When we send her home, it’s going to be with people that loved her,” Sherlyn Faria said.

She recalled that a family friend had recently bought a projector and screen to put in the backyard. “She was excited to watch movies once it starts getting cool,” Sherlyn Faria said of her daughter. “We’ll still do it.”

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Review-Journal photographer L.E. Baskow contributed to this story.