SHELBYVILLE, Ill. (WAND) – A community is mourning after a young girl drowned at Sullivan Beach over the weekend.
"She was a really, really good person,” Jaynia Bennett’s cousin, Da’Shawnna Shabazz, said. “She put people before herself. She was too young to go."
Bennett, 10, was a daughter, a sister and a cousin. She lived a short life but leaves behind a lifetime of memories and lessons.
"We mostly made TikTok videos, went outside or went to the park,” Shabazz said.”
Janiya wanted it that way. She loved TikTok.
"She wanted to be TikTok famous,” Shabazz said.
The videos will be a fond memory for Shabazz, but there is something else that will be missed the most - Janiya’s laughter.
"Whenever something wasn't funny, or if it was, she would laugh and she would make other people laugh,” Shabazz said. “She was goofy.”
The soon to be fifth-grader died over the weekend while swimming at Sullivan Beach at Lake Shelbyville with her cousin.
"I am going to miss her coming over a lot, and her laugh,” Shabazz said. “Every other weekend she would come over and we would hang out. Or I would go over to her house."
Janiya’s life may have been short, but she brought out the best in people, including her older sister, Jalexis.
“She was my purpose in life,” she said. “I don't really have one now. She was always my reasons for doing things. If it was not for her, I didn't do it. If I knew I could be good at it, I did it for her."
"She was 10 years old and whenever someone was mad or sad, she could comfort them,” Shabazz said.
Janiya’s church, New Life Church in Sullivan, has started a fundraiser to help the family.
