The family and friends of 16 and Pregnant star Valerie Fairman gathered today at a Baptist church in Cochranville, Pennsylvania, to honor the life of the young mom.
Valerie, who died tragically at the age of 23 on December 21 from a suspected drug overdose, was mourned by her friends and both her adoptive and biological families.
Valerie’s seven-year-old daughter Nevaeh also attended the memorial for her mother.
According to Valerie’s adoptive mother, Janice Fairman, Valerie was cremated shortly after her death, and no funeral was held at the time. The memorial service gave Valerie’s loved ones a chance to say goodbye to her.
“Today is Valerie’s day,” Valerie’s birth mother Beth Shepherd wrote on Instagram. “I swear I never want to go through this again.”
Last month, Janice told Daily Mail that Valerie’s daughter was doing “very well” and is coping with the loss of her mother. Janice and her husband, Gary, have full custody of Neveah and have for several years.
(Photo: Facebook)
RIP valerie fairman you was a beautiful woman gone too soon
She died almost a month ago, was cremated instantly, and they’re NOW just having a memorial? Different Strokes, I guess. Weird nonetheless.
This was not tragic. Carrie Fisher or Prince or Alan Rickman was tragic. This shit was bound to happen with these girls sooner or later, Valerie is just the first one. This was the life she chose and she chose to die in a crackhouse from a heroin overdose instead of live a full and beautiful life with her daughter. This was not tragic. Poor little Neveah has led a more tragic life thanks to her mother.
I get your point but I think there’s something tragic about a young woman who was in foster care becoming so trapped by her addiction that she basically accidentally killed herself. That’s a sad story. You can argue that Carrie Fisher had a similar sort of responsibility in her death. She said she lost weight by “not eating and exercising” which can in some cases weaken your heart muscles. I’m not minimizing Carrie Fisher’s death, but I don’t think we should be callous about Valerie’s death either just because she made bad choices in her life.
Agreed. A lot of celebrities who lost their lives in 2016 abused drugs at some point in their lives, but were lucky enough to live longer than Valerie. A young life gone wrong is always tragic, especially when it ends in death. I’m no fan of drugs, but the way people make it such a black and white/good and bad thing isn’t helpful. Something went wrong in everybody’s life who “chooses” that life; it’s not as simple as just making a bad choice when they should have known better. We’re only going to truly start to fix the drug epidemic in this country when we start realizing this…
I agree with you, DUHNELLE
No I don’t believe this is something that is goin to happen to the other girl’s it’s unfortunate that it happens to some of our kid’s it is so sad she was already using before the show but sometimes you just can’t get them to understand that they need to get clean I thought I was goin to lose a son to some stuff but he got clean and went to rehab and now Iam thankful but my ♥ breaks for all the kids and adults on drugs God Bless
Prince also OD’d.. why is his overdose tragic but Valerie’s is not?
She didn’t choose to become an addict. Not everyone who experiment with drugs become addicted – those who do have a chemical imbalance in their brain. Addiction is a disease.
Carrie Fisher had long going addictions to pills, cocaine and alcohol. Cocaine ruins your heart. Indirectly, her heart attack could have been due to weakening of her heart from years and years of cocaine abuse. Prince overdosed on opiates. You used 2 examples of deaths directly or possibly indirectly caused by drugs…to make a point that a young girl who accidentally died by drugs is not worthy of the same “tragedy” label applied to those celebrities. Celebrities who also had drug problems, past for Carrie and present for Prince. That makes no sense, seriously. Her death was tragic, as were the deaths of Carrie and Prince. It’s not a competition.
You have gone to a better place love to all your family and a special Big Hug to Nevaeh I wish u all piece
And her biological mother was refused ashes!!! She gave Valerie the best 3 years of her life towards the end!! Understood her,loved her,I hope she goes for full custody..That’s what Valerie wanted truth be told…. RIP Valerie your best friend put the truth out here..Her biological mother was grieving more then the woman who raised her!! Valerie was their meal ticket..Sad but true..I pray for Nevaeh I pray the biological mother gets full custody
Her adopted mom kicked Valerie out at 18 her meal ticket was up..Janice has biological mother’s son also..In and out of jail,drugs, biological mother trusted these people to love and care for them..$$$$ but you all wanna praise them? Biological mother needs support in this.. Everyone wants to judge her because of her past? Shame on you
Her biological mother shouldn’t be pitied, she should be ashamed of herself for refusing to provide a decent life for her children, and getting to a point where the state had to take them away. Do you think it’s a coincidence that both her bio-children are/were involved in drugs and jail? Take a psych course- childhood trauma (ie; birth parents refusing to properly love and care for you) has the potential to destroy lives. They are textbook examples of what generally happens when theres issues during the first several years of life. Sadly, if Valerie was given a normal, happy, stable life she may not have lived the way she did. She lived tragically and died tragically, and obviously had a life of pain and suffering.
unfortunately we all make mistakes some drugs is a terrible thing to be hooked up however we can sit and say if this or if she wasn’t on this or if whoever wasn’t on that things would be better but let’s face it that’s past tense so the only thing that can be done now is that somebody take care of little Nevaeh she is the thing that is important now I’d Valeries mom is clean she should be in Nevaeh life as well
unfortunately we all make mistakes some drugs is a terrible thing to be hooked up however we can sit and say if this or if she wasn’t on this or if whoever wasn’t on that things would be better but let’s face it that’s past tense so the only thing that can be done now is that somebody take care of little Nevaeh she is the thing that is important now I’d Valeries mom is clean she should be in Nevaeh life as well
Oh, and to top it off I just saw the grieving bio-mom is selling stories to TMZ. And you claim the foster parents were the ones after $$? Who PROFITS after the death of their child they refused to care for?
Prayers with the family.
Am sorry for your loss of vALERIE FAIRMAN
R.I.p to a young lady so sorry prayers nd thoughts with family