A year has passed but the flood of memories doesn't stop. The blaze in the middle of the night, a child trapped in a burning room, a father's anguish as he tried in vain to reach her.

"I have to live with that for the rest of my life," said Fuavasa Quirit, whose 12-year-old daughter, Marika, died in a 3 a.m. blaze at their Kane'ohe home just over a year ago.

"There's a lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda. ... How much more faster would I have had to move to get to her? ... It just eats away at you."

A month ago Quirit; his wife, Brenda; 11-year-old son, Vasa; and their extended family moved back into their rebuilt house on Kulauli Street. For months they hadn't known whether to rebuild or just distance themselves from the site of so much pain.

But uncanny signs led the family to rebuild.

"It was really tough for them to come back into a house and not have her," said Marilyn Huihui, Marika's maternal grandmother. "But there were some ginger plants growing along the wall and they dug them all out before they started building and put them in pots, and when they were carrying things back and bawling, the gingers were full blooming. Linda (Brenda's twin sister) said, 'I think your daughter is telling you, you better move home.' "

After the fire, an outpouring of help and support from the Windward community, plus insurance money, made it possible for the family to rebuild the modest home in the blue-collar neighborhood not far from Castle High School where the twin sisters lived with their families. Thousands of dollars were donated, along with clothing, dishes, school supplies, even a car they're still driving.

So many school supplies and items of clothing were donated through Kane'ohe Elementary, where Marika had gone through sixth grade, that the Quirits asked that other families in need be helped, too.

"It was unbelievable," said Quirit, a tall, broad-shouldered man who has tried to be the strength for his family. "One couple who had just been married brought us brand-new plates they received for their wedding. I wish people hurt by (Hurricane) Katrina could have the help we had.

"Watching TV is so sad. I watch a little and turn off the station. I can feel how they feel. In Hawai'i, it's just like hours and your help is there."

Fire Department officials said last year Hawai'i suffered its deadliest fire season in more than two decades, with 13 deaths from structure fires. Firefighters blamed many of the deaths on a lack of smoke alarms and escape plans.

Despite their own pain, the Quirits reached out after a devastating Nanakuli house fire that killed a young man in November and partially damaged the next-door duplex of his auntie and her three young children. The Quirits went to Wal-Mart, bought school supplies, clothes and toys and drove to Wai'anae. They found the charred home and left the items for the family, along with their phone number.

Even today that mother, Belinda Anderson, tears up: "It was amazing that someone that we didn't even know came out and helped my family," she said.

Just being able to help someone else was healing for the Quirits. So was the night in June when they presented a $1,000 scholarship established in their daughter's name to another student at the Myron B. Thompson Academy, through which Marika was being home-schooled in seventh grade.

But the child's death has left a gaping hole the family says will never be filled. Her younger brother, Vasa, still cries at night, and her parents find themselves staring through tears at the curio cabinet they keep in their bedroom that has become a shrine to their daughter's memory.

The cabinet is stuffed with pictures of a smiling pre-teen, impish grin on her face. Beanie Babies, dolls, gifts from friends fill the cabinet to overflowing. In the midst is an urn with her ashes.

"We'll keep her with us forever," said her father. "When we all go, the last man standing will have the chore of putting us all together and spreading us all together."

It was more than three months before Fuavasa and Brenda could bring themselves to return to work. He works at the Kailua Safeway store and she at the Kailua Kaiser clinic. Even then, Linda Huihui thought it was too soon. She saw how much her sister was suffering and thought she needed more time to try to begin to heal.

"I'm the one used to fixing things in the family and I can't fix this for my sister and that basically kind of killed me," Huihui said. "I don't know how to fix it for her and that makes me really emotional, just seeing all three of them depressed and hurting."

Both Marika's brother and her cousin, Kalae Huihui, 8, are suffering in their own ways. Marika was cousin, big sister and best friend all rolled into one. She walked them home from school, helped them with homework and was the leader and guardian when their folks allowed them to go to the mall.

Both boys have had bad dreams about the fire and a continuing dread that something terrifying will happen again.

"For the past few nights he's had a hard time sleeping, so I let him sleep with me," said Huihui of her 8-year-old. "In the morning I go around and remind him there are smoke detectors."

When the fire broke out last Aug. 29, it started in Marika's bedroom because of faulty wiring in the old home, and spread from there. But the boys were sleeping in their parents' rooms, and escaped. Linda threw Kalae through the bedroom window, and followed him out while Brenda and Fuavasa Quirit and Vasa ran out through the kitchen when the heat drove the father back from his daughter's room.

Department of Education social worker Nellani Asato has been working with the family, offering support as well as tutoring for the children, and referring them to other services. As part of her duties through the Castle High complex, she provides a comforting shoulder when the family needs it.

"We're here to support you," Asato told the family. "We're going to be here with you for as long as it takes."

The family has also found comfort through a support group run by the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center, and the boys have been able to talk about their feelings.

"They've taught him how to express himself and that really makes a difference for him," said Linda Huihui of the help her son received. "He feels relieved that he can let out what he was feeling."

But the family hasn't yet been able to overcome the enduring grief, and that may never happen.

"I told them you'll never forget Marika, but things have to go on," said Marilyn Huihui. "But she'll always be there."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.