Some mumbled final prayers, others recalled happier days spent with Tanechia Sophia Blackwood and her two sons. Most brushed away tears as the family came out for the last time. First came a tiny white casket bearing the body of Dwayne Dennis, Jr., Blackwood's four-month old. He was the love of his father's life, said Antoinette Brooks of Lansing Street, who attended high school in Jamaica with the boy's dad. Dwayne was his only child. He's devastated.

Next, came a slightly larger white casket containing the body of Elijah Boyd, Blackwood s 5-year-old with a love for reading and play-acting.

That boy was Mr. Personality, recalls Charletta Johnson of Eagle Street. He was a very smart kid.

Finally came the large white casket bearing their mother.

There's just one word to describe her wonderful, said Jerry Johnson, the victim's former basketball coach at Bassick High School. She was respectful, unselfish, hard-working everything a parent wants was in that kid. I'm still numb over this.

The three died Feb. 25 when a fire swept through their home on Colorado Avenue.

When I heard about it I didn't believe it until I saw her picture on the front page of the [Connecticut] Post, said Johnson, who worked with Blackwood at the Southwest Community Health Center on Byrd Street. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation. But investigators said there were no smoke alarms in the home.

When I get back to Hartford Monday I'm going see if the chief state's attorney and the State Police can speed this up, said state Sen. Ernest Newton, who attended the service. It's real sad, just a terrible tragedy. Elijah, the older boy, was the great grandson of Walter Edwards Sr., a longtime Bridgeport public servant.

For nearly four hours Saturday morning, a standing-room only crowd filled the Apostolic Worship Center. They began by filing past the white caskets surrounded by a montage of photographs depicting happier times. Only Elijah's casket was closed. You know my mother used to tell me it's not how long you live but how you live, said Cecil Young, a community activist who is related to Roy Boyd Jr., Elijah's father. Look at all the people here. There must be 700; all races and colors. That says something about the legacy she left behind.

At 10 a.m., the service officiated by the Rev. Oswald Ellis began.

Barbara Aubin, a nurse and Blackwood's supervisor at Southwest, and Johnson, Blackwood's former coach, eulogized their friend.

She was a good, conscientious worker, recalled Aubin. In 2003, she received an award for perfect attendance.

Aubin remembered Blackwood's love for movies, particularly anything with Jim Carrey in it.

I'd never have to go to the movies, laughed Aubin. She could recite every line.

Johnson said Blackwood was one of his all-time favorite players. In 1996, she helped Bassick make the state tournament.

She was my small forward and she'd do everything I asked except shoot, he recalled. She'd fly up and down the court, play hard defense, rebound but wouldn't shoot.

Instead, he said she'd pass off to someone else.

That's the kind of person she was from the old school, he said. I use her as an example for my players.

From the church the three bodies were taken to Mountain Grove Cemetery and buried atop each other in the same plot.

Catherine McKenna Nucera, a nurse and co-worker, said she'd talk to Blackwood at least once a day seeking medical records.

She was just a gentle soul always accommodating, said Nucera. I never saw her lose her cool just a patient, kind person, someone we could all learn something from.

Had there been smoke detectors this all might have been prevented, Nucera said. That's the real tragedy.