Mourners flocked to a Harlem church Monday to honor the lives of the mother and four children killed this month in a horrific fire that consumed their NYCHA apartment.
About 100 people attended the funeral at First Corinthian Baptist Church for mom Andrea Pollidore, 45, and her children Elijah, 3, Brook-Lynn, 6, Andre, 8, and Nakyra, 11, who died May 8 when flames erupted in their fifth-floor apartment of the Frederick Samuel Houses on Seventh Avenue near 142nd Street.
Some of the bereaved wore T-shirts printed with photos of the family members and the words, “heavenly angels.”
“In Harlem, as a community, we are family. Blood don’t make you a family,” said friend Kimberly Thomas, 40, at the service.
The memorial included reflections from family and friends and words from local leaders, including state Sen. Brian Benjamin (D-Harlem), Frederick Samuel Houses’ tenant Association President Diane Blackwell and the principal of PS 194. The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a video message.
Pollidore was remembered as “an amazing mom who finished college and survived a previous fire. [She] fought for everything for her kids. She loved any and everybody,” Thomas said.
Young Nakiyra enjoyed cooking and “was very smart,” she said. “She liked to help all her friends in school. She liked to study hard when she knew a test was coming up so she could accomplish the highest grade that she could.”
While listening to the eulogies, Thomas said, “Visions were going through my head, visions of times that we spent together. Their voices in my ears, their laughter. The vision of them in life.”
Pollidore’s stepson, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, 33, was also killed in the inferno, but it wasn’t known when his funeral would be held.
Investigators believe Pollidore turned on a stove-top burner, then fell asleep, sources have said.
Neighbors told authorities she regularly set off the smoke detectors, which were disabled at the time of the fire.
The family — including their 2-year-old pet Yorkie Penny — was unable to escape the inferno and were found inside two of the apartment’s three bedrooms.