The grieving classmates of a Harlem girl who died in a hellish apartment fire last month memorialized their friend at a bittersweet graduation ceremony Tuesday morning.
Nakyra Pollidore, 11, perished in the blaze along with her mother, three siblings and another relative — just a month before she was to don a cap and gown at PS 194.
Emotional school staffers presented Pollidore’s freshly printed diploma to relatives Tuesday as her friends roared and sniffled in the crowd.
Two of Nakyra’s younger siblings, Brook-Lynn Pollidore, 6, and Andre Pollidore, 8, also attended the school.
Administrators unveiled an oversize collage of commemorative artwork crafted by Pollidore’s fellow students in the wake of her passing.
“Nakyra was a very sweet and loving girl,” said close friend Jamie Hartwell, 10. “She was always willing to help me. We would tell each other everything. We wouldn’t dare to keep anything from each other.”
Hartwell said she lost her only true confidante in life when the fire ripped through Pollidore’s NYCHA apartment and decimated once closely-knit family.
“If she was down I would help her, and if I was down she would help me,” she said. “And it’s really sad now because…I don’t have anybody like her to talk to anymore.”
Despite the passage of several weeks, Hartwell said she still makes a point to pray for her friend at the makeshift vigil in front of her apartment building.
The seven-story NYCHA residence that housed Pollidore and her family had no sprinklers, and the closest emergency exits were off the kitchen — where the blaze sparked from an unattended stove.
Represented by attorney Evan Oshan, Pollidore’s family plan to sue the city for more than $2 billion.
Their notices of claim assert that officials “failed to comply with proper designs and safety standards” and allowed “hazardous and unsafe conditions” at the building.
“Nakiyra, today was her graduation day,” said parent Crystal Figueroa Tuesday. “That child was lovely. She had a good heart, she cared for others. She looked out for her friends. She was the kind of kid who always tried to uplift everyone else.”