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Mardie Sonnier provides an important relief for her granddaughter and others. Every school day she invites the neighborhood children inside her tiny kitchen to pray in a cramped circle before the bus comes. The ritual included Jamyla before she was killed. "We started praying this year. It's something I felt we needed to do," says Mardie Sonnier, 67. Sonnier leads her grandchildren Destiny Sonnier (right), 9, and Anthony Murry, 6, along with neighbor Akeelah Kelly, 8, in prayer before they leave to walk to the bus stop in October. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com