Four school desks sat empty on the stage at Dr. Bernard Harris Sr. Elementary School, each labeled with a young boy's name: Keith, Juan, Carnell and Kevin.
During an hourlong program yesterday of song, poetry and recitals, pupils remembered their former classmates, brothers who perished in the arson fire that killed seven members of the Dawson family in East Baltimore in October.
"To us, their demise has no rhyme or reason, but the Bible teaches us for everything there is a season," recited a tiny girl dressed in the day's uniform, which features a crisp white shirt with a red ribbon tied at the collar.
Mayor Martin O'Malley and City Council members Pamela V. Carter and Melvin L. Stukes lent an official air to the ceremony at the school in the 1400 block of Caroline St., just two blocks north of the blackened husk of the Dawson family's rowhouse.
Parents clapped after members of the fourth grade sang, "Over our heads, we hear music in the air, oh there must be an angel somewhere." Teachers mouthed the words as third-gradepupils, classmates of 9-year-old twins Kevin and Keith Dawson, belted out another tune.
"We remember," sang a squeaky-voiced soloist. "Your labor shall not be in vain, and our reward awaits in your name."
Dejuon Baker read a poem written by fifth-grader Kimberli Brady about their classmates, Juan Ortiz, 12, and Carnell Dawson Jr., 10.
Adults joined in the memorial.
"Today we remember four brothers ... four who were different, unique, but similar in so many ways. One who loved to play basketball, another who loved to listen. Carnell loved to do math, and Keith loved to smile," said Loretta McClairn, who works at the school as a family community coordinator.
PTA President Sharon Melvin choked back tears as members of the Dawson family accepted gifts of red poinsettias. "We somehow expect our child to outlive ourself," she said.
School officials dedicated the classroom library and a playground where the boys frolicked in the name of the Dawsons, bringing tears to relatives still shaken by the Oct. 16 deaths of Angela Maria Dawson, 36, her sons and daughter LaWanda Ortiz, 14. Dawson's husband, Carnell Dawson Sr., 43, died a week after leaping from a second-story window to escape the fire.
His sister, Alice McNack, sobbed as the children released 220 blue and white balloons near the swing sets and the choir sang the words, "I'll see you again where the sun is always shining, where sorrows are no more."
Standing next to the new yellow-and-black Dawson Memorial Playground sign, McNack called the tribute a step toward healing the wounds of surviving family members. "I know they will always be remembered, that their stories will be told," she said quietly, her eyes straining to watch the balloons disappear.
State prosecutors have charged Darrell Brooks, 21, with multiple counts of first-degree murder but consulted Maryland U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio to determine whether charges in the case should be brought in federal court -- where convictions result in harsher penalties than in the city's troubled court system.
Brooks is a neighbor of the Dawsons and has a long history of run-ins with city police. Authorities allege the fire was set to punish the family for reporting drug dealing in their neighborhood.
For a moment yesterday afternoon, the criminal case faded from the front of Donnell Golden's mind.
Golden, Angela Dawson's mother, remained outside in the playground long after the mayor and television cameras left and the children went back into the school.
The dedication had come as a pleasant surprise, she said, and despite the cold, she wasn't ready to leave. Spying the outlines of a hopscotch board beneath the ice, Golden, 55, grabbed a chunk of frozen snow and played a quick, impromptu game.
"Seven lives," Golden sighed as she caught her breath. "But I'm getting stronger as the days go along."