Faye Swetlik’s ‘sunshine’ kept alive by mother, grandmother and loving memory rocks
With every step she took, Faye Swetlik left a footprint of bright colors. Her imagination could turn regular rocks into glittering rubies. If she was an animal, Faye would’ve been a unicorn.
Today, as all future days, Faye “sparkles from heaven,” her grandmother, Ruth Collins, said.
This is how everyone who knew the 6-year-old described her — a walking, talking rainbow.
“Everything happy.” That’s what Faye’s mother, Selena Collins, wants people to think of when they hear Faye’s name.
“I would much rather her name be aligned with something that is bright and colorful and happy than something that is tragic,” she said.
The tragic part, Faye’s abduction and death a year ago, still shrouds her mother and grandmother in a shadow that Selena described as “overwhelming grief.” The girl was last seen playing in her Cayce front yard on Feb. 10, 2020. She was found four days later, and police say the man who killed her took his own life.
Faye’s father, Chad Swetlik, has trouble putting that darkness into words.
“It’s been rough,” he said. “But we find little things that we think she might like and put it away with all her other stuff that we have.”
In February 2020, the shadow of Faye’s death covered the people of Cayce and the Midlands, her teachers, friends, and the authorities who searched for her and investigated her killing.
As the one year mark approached, Selena didn’t want the story to be about that shadow.
Sitting with Chad and a photo of Faye wearing a blue-purple shirt with a unicorn on it, Selena fidgeted with a ring on her finger. She wanted a story to be about the little bundle of sunshine that was Faye; how she could break up any darkness.
She wanted people to remember how Faye was “bright and bubbly and happy and so willing to be anybody’s friend.”
And to live that way.
“I would want people to know to love everybody you have in your life a little bit harder,” Selena said. “To appreciate the smaller moments that you experience in your loved ones’ lives just because you never really realize how important the smaller things are until you don’t get to experience those again with them.”
Faye rocks
One of those small things was how talkative Faye was, a quality her daughter inherited from herself, Selena said.
And how Faye always showed concern for others. “She couldn’t hear an ambulance without going, ‘Oh no, somebody’s hurt. Are they going to be okay?’”
Her child also loved being around the water, Selena said. For Faye’s birthday last year, the family spent time at a pool.
“She was definitely a real water baby,” Selena said. “Any opportunities, particularly on a holiday, when we can spend by the water we have been. Being just a little bit closer to her.”
Holidays have been hard for Faye’s family. But doing things Faye would have liked has eased the sadness some.
“Christmas was probably the more difficult holiday, but we made sure we ate some cake and we watched some pretty ridiculous Christmas movies,” Selena said. They sang carols “off key, loudly, badly.”
Faye also taught her grandmother to appreciate the little things that often go ignored.
While living in West Columbia, Ruth was inseparable from her grandchild.
“My baby was an old soul,” she said. “She taught me so many ways about how to enjoy the small things”
Faye “brought so many people together through her love of all things bright and beautiful,” Ruth said.
Faye still brings people together through the rocks bearing her name that are scattered around Lexington County and even in other states.
Faye liked collecting rocks. In February 2020, a Facebook group popped up with the name “Rocks for Faye.” “Let us allow for her memory to live on through kindness, rocks and positivity!” the creator of the group wrote.
The group encourages people to paint rocks with bright designs and Faye’s name, and then place them around Lexington County or anywhere else for people to find.
The painting-and-hiding-rocks hobby, which people call “rocking,” is popular in Lexington County. The group created in Faye’s memory is the hobbyists’ most followed hub with almost 8,000 followers. Rocks for Faye have been painted and hidden as far away as Alaska.
On New Year’s Day, a woman found a rock for Faye in central Massachusetts. It had a rocket flying over earth painted on it with the words, “Set your goals high.”
“Once I learned of the significance and found out who Faye was, it touched my heart,” the woman posted in the group.
People across Lexington County have done their best to turn the nightmare of one family into a neon dream. The town of Springdale, next door to Cayce, dedicated a section of a park to Faye with a pink bench and a bed of rocks for “rocking.”
Sue Aptaker helps run the Facebook group “Have a Faye Day,” another campaign started to get people to live with the kind spirit that Faye had.
She’s shipped T-shirts printed with “Have a Faye Day” all the way to Austria. She also has a project to get books about kindness and sharing, which are stamped with “Have a Faye Day” inside, into the library at Springdale Elementary where Faye attended. She’s done all this but never met Faye in person.
Aptaker became friends with Faye’s grandmother, Ruth, through a social media group for dog owners. She watched Faye grow up on social media. Faye’s personality burst through the screen and made Aptaker light up.
She talked to Faye on the phone once, Aptaker said. What she remembers the most is Faye giggling.
“She exuded this sweetness and light and fun,” Aptaker said. Faye was “the good old fashion kid who stomps through puddles in her rain boots.”
“A lot of us who never met her just loved her,” she said.
When skies are gray
Ruth recently found a video of her granddaughter. Faye is about 4 years old, wearing a nightie printed with Dory from Finding Nemo swimming against a rainbow of colors. She’s sitting on a chair in the bathtub and reading to her grandmother from a paper that’s she’s written in her child’s handwriting.
“Otay,” she says before she starts.
She’s written a song that Ruth’s mother used to sing to Ruth. Ruth sang it to Selena and her siblings. Ruth sang it to Faye too.
Faye starts to sing, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.”
She goes too high in her little kid’s voice for the next parts.
“You make me happy when skies are gray.”
She stops to say “I forgot.” But she hasn’t forgotten. Her grandmother has sung it to her many times. She goes right back to singing in that pitchy child’s voice.
“You’ll never know dear how much I love you. Please don’t take...”
She stops to look at her grandmother and it doesn’t seem like Faye’s forgotten. Just that she wants her grandmother to sing it with her.
And Grandma helps her finish the song. “Please don’t take my sunshine.”
“Away,” they both sing.
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 9:32 AM.