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Flowers lined the entrance of a Fairfax County dental clinic as patients mourned Dr. Cerina Fairfax, remembering her as a compassionate dentist who formed lasting friendships with the people she treated.
Fairfax, the wife of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, died early Thursday. Police said her husband shot her before killing himself.
Dottie Shields, a patient for about 13 years, was among those who left flowers outside the closed office. She had seen Fairfax just two weeks earlier, when they chatted about the improving weather.
“She was just a good, kind person,” Shields said. “I’m brokenhearted for her children. I just wanted to leave flowers so she knows how much she was loved.”
Employees at a neighboring hair salon also remembered Fairfax warmly.
“Lovely, compassionate — a wonderful dentist and a wonderful person,” stylist Arlean Gabbert said. “You get a friendship going. I loved her.”
Gabbert recalled Fairfax sharing stories about her interests beyond dentistry, including farming and raising chickens. She and Shields said they sometimes saw Fairfax’s two children at the office, but neither had met her husband or discussed his political career with her.
Fairfax earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1999 and graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Dentistry in 2005 with a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, according to her professional biography.
She later completed an advanced general dentistry residency at VCU and received the university alumni association’s Outstanding Graduate of the Last Decade recognition. She was also a member of Omicron Kappa Upsilon, a national dental honor society.
Outside her practice, Fairfax enjoyed reading, yoga, traveling and running trails with her dogs. She also volunteered, participated in community outreach and supported local charities.
Her family released a statement Friday through the Fairfax County Police Department’s Victim Services Division, calling her death “an unimaginably difficult moment” and asking for privacy as relatives support one another.