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Enlarge Joe Songer — The Birmingham News Concord Elementary is held a memorial service for its two students who were killed in the April 27 tornado Wednesday May 18, 2011. Students read excerpts from a memory book they created about their now deceased classmates and present the book to the father and both sets of grandparents. (The mother also was killed) Also, the school has framed two pieces of artwork made by the deceased students which will be presented to the family as well. Also, the 25 students (from 15 homes) who were displaced by the tornado have written down their stories about what happened to them. The school has them posted on the wall. The other 350 students made diecuts of themselves and pasted them around those students’ stories to show their support for those students. Faculty and staff did the same in an outer ring around the students. It’s a visual representation of care and support. Third-grader Haley Alexis Kreider, 8, and her brother, fourth-grader Michael David Kreider, 10, died in the April 27 tornado, along with their mother, Michelle Pearson Kreider, 30. Student Casey Holmes is comforted by school counselor Renae Roszell as he reads his memorial to Michael and Haley Kreider at the memorial. the table at left is filled with their artwork and awards and photos of both children. (The Birmingham News/Joe Songer) Concord Elementary students hold memorial for classmates killed by the tornado gallery (14 photos)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Children cried at Concord Elementary School on Wednesday.

Some merely dabbed at their eyes while others let the tears trickle freely down their faces as they recounted the lives they shared with 8-year-old Lexie Kreider and her brother, 10-year-old Mikey.

Some were so wracked by sobs that they could not finish the letters they had written for a memorial to the classmates lost in the April 27 tornadoes.

“I remember when you and I were riding on the school bus together,” Kati McGraw read from a letter she wrote to Mikey. “We had so much fun we laughed almost the whole way there. On the way back I fell asleep on your shoulder, and when we got back to the school you woke me up by tickling me.”

The stories came. And the tears fell.

“In 2007 when Lexie came to Concord, I ripped my pants,” Michael Blackston read from his letter. “All the class laughed, but she didn’t. She was kind, happy, joyful, and always a friend.”

Children cried at Concord on Wednesday in a service filled with real, honest, straightforward eulogies from the mouths and minds of third and fourth graders, in a service that featured flying doves and a child’s solo rendition of Amazing Grace.

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