HAU'ULA — Over the last two days, whenever Chantell Burke has asked her son Keaka where his sister is, the 4-year-old boy's answer has brought inner strength to her.

"He says she's with Jesus," Burke said yesterday.

Keaka Aku and sister, Teysia, 2, had slipped out of the house and were playing Tuesday morning in the path of a Chevy TrailBlazer backing out of a driveway.

Keaka escaped with scrapes and bruises but Teysia was run over and died.

"She was our princess angel, a sociable baby, always smiling and happy," 23-year-old Adam Aku said of his daughter. "I'm thankful God gave us Keaka back, but I miss Teysia, our only girl. But I know I'll meet her again."

Aku and Burke, with sons Skyler, 5, Keaka and Moses, who is 2 months old, gathered at North Windward Baptist Church in Hau'ula last night to pray with friends and plan Teysia's funeral.

"Even when she frowned, she smiled," family friend Tish Fairly said. "Teysia was always the first one I looked for at church."

DAYTIME NIGHTMARE

After four years of Adam Aku living with a hanai mom several houses away from Burke, who was staying at her mother's house with the children, the family moved into a one-bedroom unit at 53-224 Kamehameha Highway in Punalu'u on March 1, happy to be together.

They moved out Tuesday and back to the old arrangement, unable to look at the house or driveway.

Faith and support of family and church are helping Aku and Burke cope with their grief.

Adam Aku recalled he was working on his car that morning and had told Keaka and Teysia to stay in the house.

"I heard the roar of the engine going back and the driver's brother yelling, 'Stop, go forward!' " Aku said. "But the Blazer backed up some more."

Aku rushed into the driveway and saw Keaka under the Blazer but away from the tires. Then he saw someone else under the SUV.

"I couldn't tell it was her," Aku said.

That night Aku tossed and turned in bed, unable to erase that image.

"The way I seen her when she died. ... I was crying today, but everybody's prayer is helping," Aku said. The nightmare is being replaced slowly by images of his daughter's smiling face.

LOOKING FOR PEACE

Burke, meanwhile, spent part of Tuesday night getting a picture of her daughter with pigtails and smiling face tattooed on her right back shoulder with the inscription, "In loving memory Teysia."

"I miss her," Burke, 22, said. "She picked the name Moses for the baby.

"I would always say to her, 'I love Teysia,' and she would say to me, 'I love Babes,' " Burke said. "(This) has made us realize we got to be closer, especially to our kids, and tell them we love them every day. I know I appreciate them even more now."

Aku said, "It can happen to anybody, and I know now how people feel when they lose a child. But with Jesus Christ in my life, I can have peace in my heart."

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.