Behind a table filled with flickering candles stood a picture of two young girls wearing wings and smiling brightly, sandwiched between portraits of their parents.
Beneath each one were their cremated remains, surrounded by bouquets of flowers to honor four young lives gone too soon.
Celebration Church in Akron held visitation hours and a celebration of life service Monday night for Omar Riley, 36, Shirley Wallis, 33, and their daughters Aniyla Riley, 9, and Shanice Riley, 8, who all perished in a house fire Dec. 3 in their North Hill home.
Nearly 150 family members, friends and neighbors showed up to remember the Wallis and Riley family, and the two survivors of the fire.
The oldest daughter, 12-year-old Shaniya, was the only family member to survive after she was found in the blaze and revived. Shaniya goes by the last names of both Wallis and Simpson. Family friend Jennifer Grubbs, who lived in the house, also survived when she escaped through an attic window.
Firefighters couldn’t find evidence of any smoke detectors in the three-story rental home. The cause of the fire is still undetermined.
Both Grubbs and Shaniya were hospitalized after the incident but have since been released and are recovering from their injuries.
“She looks great,” said the Rev. Zach Prosser of Celebration Church about Shaniya. “It is definitely a miracle. She recovered very quickly and very well.”
Shaniya was hospitalized for about a week after the incident with injuries from smoke inhalation and burns. She stayed at the family’s visitation hours until about 6 p.m., when “she reached her limit,” Prosser said.
“[Shaniya’s] holding up the best she can,” Grubbs said. “I’m doing alright, just sore … It’s just gonna be hard for everybody. They were good people.”
In the auditorium, members of the Wallis and Riley families embraced one another in tears; some of them were just meeting for the first time.
Wallis and Riley weren’t married, but “they considered themselves married,” Prosser said.
During the service, family members remembered the couple and their children, prayed for Shaniya and praised God for what they still have.
“Uncle Omar was by far one of the most encouraging people,” said Sherbert Campbell, Riley’s nephew. “There’s no one who pushed me to explore my talent and put it out there more than he did.”
Campbell read a poem he wrote about God’s will, to which mourners responded with strong affirmations of “Amen” and even some laughs.
“I know we came for a funeral today, I haven’t forgotten,” Campbell said. “But what we can’t forget is the bigger picture — that [God] has a bigger plan. You see how you can laugh right now? He is all the time.”
But when memories came flooding back, loved ones fell silent.
“Shirley was a very kind and loving mother,” said Pat Clites, Wallis’ sister. “[Omar] took care of [Shaniya] just like she was his own, and he was there trying to save them.”
“Our prayers are for Shaniya to understand she is not alone,” said Terraine King, Riley’s sister. “Not only will her family be there, but the community will be, too.”
Afterward, King read 2 Corinthians 5:8 to offer a word of solace about the four lives she said are now in heaven: “We are confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.”
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom .