Grief overwhelms a family and a school after three siblings die in a house fire

Trio were `always a unit of one'

When she came to the third-grade boys, Sadik stood and told her, "`I'm a good boy, and I'm never in trouble,'" she recalled, laughing. "He wanted me to know that he was the ideal student. I said to the other boys, `You should model yourselves after him.' They actually agreed. He was well-liked by his classmates."

The children will be officially remembered in the school with some sort of dedication, Goodwyn-Askew said, perhaps by naming the cafeteria or another room after them. "We're definitely not going to let their memories fade away," she said.

Barrett, Siedah's kindergarten teacher, said the girl was "a lovable child."

"She was willing to help the other children," Barrett said, her eyes misting. "When another child couldn't find a page in a book, she was there to help."

Siedah, Delayn and a third child were "best friends" who often teamed up "to put everyone else's notebooks in their cubbies for them," Barrett said.

When she told the class that Siedah had died, Barrett said, one child asked why God had taken her now.

"Well," Barrett said in reply, "we cannot pick and choose the day that he's going to come and take us."

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