Standing in the yard of her former home, underneath a canopy of clouds as rain fell and mixed with her tears, Janise Creek embraced three stuffed dolls with plastic angel wings in her arms — one for each of her daughters who died in a fire at their townhouse in July.

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       “Maybe, it’s their tears crying down,” Shawnee Redwood, 48, the girls’ aunt, said of the rain falling in the night.

       A crowd of about 100 family, friends and community members gathered along the sidewalk and in the front yard of the burned and boarded house on Iverson Street at a candlelight vigil late last month to honor Jayla Brown, 9, NyJae Meade, 6, and NaJhari Meade, 1.

       A week before the vigil, in the early hours of July 19, firefighters responded a call that the house was in flames.

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       Two of the girls inside the house were taken to a hospital, where they later died. One was found dead inside the house on the first floor by firefighters, officials said.

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       A week after the fire in Hillcrest Heights, green, yellow and pink balloons — each of the girls’ favorite colors — decorated tents set up in the yard.

       Gospel music played from speakers, serenading the whole block as neighbors opened their windows and turned on their lights. Some sang along to the chorus of a Kirk Franklin song that played in the background.

       “Melodies from heaven, rain down on me.”

       Three children die in Maryland house fire

       Creek, 29, said the family is still processing what happened that night as they were sleeping.

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       Creek; her fiance, Nick Meade; and four children, including Meade’s other daughter, Zaria Meade, 11, were in the home that night, the family said.

       Zaria Meade and Creek were able to escape.

       Creek said Nick Meade “fainted and fell” from too much smoke trying to go back in the home to save the girls. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition, Larine Hurd, Meade’s mother, said.

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       Nick Meade, 31, arrived at the vigil holding on to a walker and with a bandage on his arm after being in the hospital for several days. He said he is “maintaining.”

       County fire officials say the cause of the fire remains under investigation but do not suspect any foul play.

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       “I’m just taking it a day at a time,” Creek said. “I’ve got my moments. I smile, I try not to think about it, but sometimes I feel numb.”

       “I gotta carry on my babies’ legacy,” she added.

       Jayla loved books and robotics. Creek said she saw her daughter one day becoming a scientist. Her father, Tyrrell Brown, said she was like “Bill Nye, the Science Guy,” loved math and got good grades in school.

       NyJae, Creek said, was her “goofball,” who wanted snacks all day and didn’t take things too seriously.

       “I always said that [she] was going to be my comedian,” Creek said.

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       And NaJhari, she loved to dance, just like Creek did when she was younger, she said. Creek saw her youngest one day becoming a choreographer.

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       “They all had amazing personalities,” Creek said. “It was like I can feel what they were going to be.”

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       Brown, 33, who helped co-parent the girls with Creek and Meade, said NaJhari was just learning how to say his name. “She just started basically talking, saying my name,” he said.

       “They were beautiful, beautiful nieces,” Redwood said. “Funny, talented and smart.”

       With the amount of support from the community, dozens of phone calls, messages and donations to support the family, Creek said “my babies were definitely loved.”

       At a cookout and fundraiser for the family July 24 — organized by Meade’s bandmates — Hurd, 57, said the girls were her “precious angels.”

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       She showed pictures of the girls playing together with their dog, Silk, who would pull the covers off them in the morning and run after them around the house.

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       “[Silk] thought he was one of the girls,” she said of the dog who also died in the fire.

       Mondays were usually special days for Hurd, who would take each grandchild out for their favorite activities on “Nana Monday day.” But the girls died in the fire on a Monday. Then the next Monday there was the vigil.

       “God makes no mistakes, and they’re with Him and they’re at peace and they’re His angels,” Hurd said.

       Heaven and her “angels” were the focus at the candlelight vigil.

       Praise dancer Kendra Mosley, 32, wore all white with angel wings on her back. With her arms reaching out toward the sky, she danced to gospel songs for the girls.

       When the nighttime came, the crowd lifted their lit candles up toward the sky, encircling Creek, Meade and Brown as they stood in the center of the yard next to the girls’ grandmothers and grandfathers, holding on to each other.

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       “Hold y’all kids,” Brown addressed the group, wiping away tears. “Hold y’all kids.”

       Untying the balloons, a collage of color flew into the air — green for Jayla, pink for NyJae and yellow for NaJhari.

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