By Rich Bockmann
It was a somber affair at PS 221 in Little Neck last week as members of the school’s community gathered to remember the lives of three young students whose lives were cut short before they got the chance to graduate with their classmates.
“We are here today to pay tribute to the brief lives of three children of the class of 2011 — Fajir Javid, Steven Petillo and Lexie Falabella,” Principal Sheelia Twomey told the solemn crowd of family members, friends, teachers and staff who gathered inside the school’s auditorium.
Twomey said it was about a year ago this weekend that Fajir drowned. Steven died in an automobile accident in August. Lexi finally succumbed to a brain tumor in 2009 at the age of 9.
In front of the school’s early childhood playground, just north of 60th Avenue on Marathon Parkway, the fifth-grade class planted a magnolia tree with a plaque underneath it bearing the names of their departed schoolmates.
“Most of all, the fifth-grade class wants the Falabella, Javid and Petillo families to be reminded each time they pass this way that their children were loved by their friends,” Twomey said.
In the coming months, the school plans to dedicate a garden in the courtyard outside the main hallway as a place where people can come to learn and keep the memory of the three alive.
“Each name will be prominently displayed so future students will know the names of Steven, Lexi and Fajir and associate those names with friendship and peace,” she said.
The memorial event was short on speeches but heavy with emotion. The class of 2011 sang a version of the song “Seasons of Love” from the play “Rent,” with some of the lyrics changed for the occasion.
Kathy Kasparian taught Fajir in the fourth-grade and said he had a warm heart and always brought a desire to learn.
Through teary eyes and a choked voice, teacher Denise Corichi recalled Lexi as a kindergartner — a feisty, outgoing young girl full of energy, who remained so as she was being treated for cancer.
“Although her illness was able to hurt her body, it was not able to hurt her spirit,” she said. “This is the Lexi I will always remember.”
After the memorial, everyone went to the gymnasium to share each other’s friendship. Teachers, parents and tearful students came to talk to Lexi’s mother, LeaAnn.
“I haven’t been back since she passed away. I feel like I’m coming home,” she said. “She was a compassionate little girl who cared about other people more than she cared about herself, and she kept that even when she was sick.”
Rosalia Rosen, Steven’s fourth-grade teacher, remembered him as kind, considerate, determined and playful.
“I think of him often,” she said.
Candy Dres’ sons, Dimitri and Peter, were friends of Steven who played baseball with him.
“We have a saying in Greek — ‘You have to go to weddings and funerals because that’s where you see your friends,’” she said. “It’s bittersweet.”
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
