Darnell Currie Jr. was a football player at heart and a curious third grader.
A’millah Currie loved watching the children’s cartoon, Bluey, and playing hide-and-seek.
Their funeral on Thursday captured their childhood. Stuffed animals surrounded 2-year-old A’millah in her pink casket, much smaller than the one carrying 9-year-old Darnell Jr. Bluey characters, a football helmet and framed jersey — number 19 — were placed near the two children who died last week after apparently freezing to death while they slept in a van downtown.
Inside the Triumph Church in Detroit, kids in pink hair bows and football jerseys said their final goodbyes. Song and prayer enveloped about 150 mourners as they paid their respects.
“We never assume that we’re going to bury our children. We assume that our children are going to live longer than us or they’re going to bury us,” Pastor Solomon Kinloch said in his eulogy.
Darnell Jr. played football and loved video games. In his obituary, the 9-year-old was described as a bright spirit at his elementary school, “full of energy, laughter, and a playful nature.” He spent “countless hours” playing with his little sister.
A’millah, known as “YaYa,” had a big personality, filling “every room with love and laughter,” playing games and running around with her cousins. The two children shared an “unbreakable bond,” their obituary read.
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On Wednesday, mourners attended a public visitation at the New McFall Brothers Funeral Home in Detroit. People who knew the family and others who did not, visited the children, reflecting on the need to care for one another and hoping the city paid more attention to homelessness.
A mother, with four of her children, and their grandmother, with one of her children, were unhoused and sheltering in a van when they entered the parking garage of Hollywood Casino at Greektown around 1 a.m. Feb. 10, according to police.
Two of the mother’s children died and police believe they froze to death. The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office hasn’t yet released an official cause of death. The investigation could take several months, said Dr. LokMan Sung, Wayne County’s Chief Medical Examiner, in a statement on Thursday.
Before the tragedy, the family had reached out to the city’s homeless response team at least three times, the latest in November, Duggan said during a news conference last week. The mother reportedly called multiple shelters as well but was told they were full.
Duggan requested the city and its housing department investigate what went wrong and how they could prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. That review is underway. The mayor is expected to receive a copy of that report early next week.
The New McFall Brothers Funeral Home is providing funeral services for the family at no cost. The city of Detroit has been helping coordinate the visitation and funeral services, according to a news release last week.
Free Press staff writer Andrea May Sahouri contributed to this report.
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