For Brandon and Sierra, balloons to heaven

Danette Goulet

To the haunting strains of a melancholy melody, friends and family of

Brandon Cody Wiener and Sierra Beth Soto released dozens of purple and

blue balloons into the late afternoon sky.

It was their way of remembering the two young lives that were taken from

them one year ago.

Nearly 50 people gathered at Pacific View Memorial Park on Wednesday to

lend their love and support to the families who lost 3-year-old Brandon

and 4-year-old Sierra last May when Steven Allen Abrams drove his 1967

Cadillac onto the playground at the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning

Center.

A year later, those two families are still struggling to gain some sense

of normalcy and peace.

Sierra’s mother, Cindy Soto, started Sierra’s Light Foundation to raise

money for safety structures at preschools and to create legislation that

would create safety guidelines for all all day-care centers.

“It’s been very hard for her -- that little girl was her whole life,”

said Jill Moss, a friend of the Sotos, whose daughter Kimberly was

Sierra’s dance mentor. “This [memorial] is going to be as tough as

anything, but this should be the last of the real ugly stepping stones.”

Girls from The Dance Center, of which Soto is the owner and director,

clutched bunches of balloons in purple -- Sierra’s favorite color -- in

tribute to the little girl they all doted on from the day she was born.

Many of the dance students wore purple shirts adorned with glittering

silver stars and bearing Sierra’s name and the date May 3, 1999.

“I’m just happy that all our friends came out today -- all the people who

knew and loved Sierra and Brandon,” Soto said. “I know they love me and I

know they love her and that’s what’s going to get you through it.”

With the song “In the Arms of an Angel” by Sarah McClaughlin playing in

the background, mourners stood in a circle clutching hands and crying as

they said a prayer for the two children.

They released the balloons, telling Brandon’s little sister Shaya that

the colorful orbs would not come down because they were going up to

heaven.