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.

Related:

• Michigan refugees left in limbo under Trump resettlement suspension
• Cash for moms experiment expands in Michigan, where lawmakers see promise
• Detroit searches for answers after massive water break forces evacuations

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.

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.

Related:

• Michigan refugees left in limbo under Trump resettlement suspension
• Cash for moms experiment expands in Michigan, where lawmakers see promise
• Detroit searches for answers after massive water break forces evacuations

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.

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