The sounds of cartoons and children playing in Mary Ferguson’s living room Thursday were a sharp contrast to the cried-out eyes and pained expressions of the adults in the apartment.

“It’s not going to be the same,” Ferguson said.

Not the same without her granddaughter Princanna around.

Princanna Strain, 5, died Wednesday after a large cabinet fell on her during gym class at her school. (Ferguson family photo)

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Princanna Strain's grandparents, Mary and Robert Ferguson, say their granddaughter — pictured with her siblings, Sir John My King (left), 6, and Koodijah (center), 15 — was a caring and loving little girl. (Duane A. Laverty photo)

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Natalie Rocha, Princanna's mother, is serving a 99-year sentence in the Gatesville prison for killing her aunt.

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Princanna Strain, a 5-year-old J.H. Hines Elementary School student, died Thursday after a large cabinet on wheels fell on her during her gym class at the old G.L. Wiley Middle School. Hines faculty and staff are occupying the middle school while their new elementary school is being built.

Princanna’s grandparents, Mary and Robert Ferguson; her aunt, Nikoll Henry; and other family members plodded through the day Thursday, seeming both stunned and exhausted, while the phone rang regularly and visitors came and went. Reminders of Princanna were everywhere, in the picture of her with her older brother and sister, in the sketch of her as a baby drawn by a prison inmate. And in the picture in Robert Ferguson’s phone — his favorite photo of her.

“It just won’t settle on us,” Robert Ferguson said. “We’ve cried dry.”

Princanna’s 6-year-old brother and Hines student, Sir John My King Strain, played with their cousins, having stayed home from school. Robert Ferguson said the children, Princanna’s regular playmates, were grieving in their own way.

“They’ll come to a point where they remember Princanna used to be here with us, and they’ll just start crying,” he said.

Grief also settled over the Wiley campus Thursday as Hines students, faculty and staff struggled to deal with their loss. More than a dozen counselors from across the district were at Hines on Thursday morning, talking to a number of students.

The accident occurred around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday when a few children, including Princanna, chased a lizard over to a large cabinet on casters and then crawled in it, tipping it off-balance. School officials said the gym teacher told the children who had gotten in the cabinet to get off it and get in line with the rest of the class. The teacher turned her back for a moment to give directions to a group of fourth-graders who had walked into the gym, and then she heard the cabinet come crashing down.

Princanna was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in an ambulance, where she was pronounced dead. Mary Ferguson said she was told that Princanna’s lung had been punctured.

Hines gym classes went as scheduled in the Wiley gymnasium Thursday. And the gym teacher was back in class Thursday, with another veteran gym teacher in the district at her side, helping her get through the day.

Princanna was a tiny little thing, her grandparents say, about the size of a 3-year-old. But she was already working into the precocious role of doting granddaughter and caregiver.

“She liked to do housework,” Mary Ferguson said. “She took care of me when I was sick. She slept with me and wouldn’t go to sleep until I went to sleep.”

Robert Ferguson said Princanna watched out for him, too, always trying to fix him something to eat.

“She’d say, ‘Papa, you hungry? What you want? Some eggs? Some bacon?’  ” he said.

Princanna was his own technical support, as well, handy with a cell phone and computer.

Princanna has been with Mary Ferguson since Princanna’s mother was incarcerated when she was 3. But Mary Ferguson and Princanna had a close relationship even before then, Robert Ferguson said.

Princanna’s mother, Natalie Rocha, was a longtime East Waco crack dealer. She is serving a 99-year sentence in the Gatesville prison for the 2007 stabbing death of her aunt over a $150 crack debt.

Rocha’s children visited her regularly, Robert Ferguson said. Mary Ferguson contacted Mountainview Unit, where Rocha is housed, shortly after Wednesday’s accident. The information was relayed to Rocha by the chaplain and a psychologist.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Rocha was “certainly upset” by the news, but he declined to go into details. Rocha will receive frequent visits by the unit’s chaplain.

The family had hoped Rocha would be allowed to attend her youngest child’s funeral Saturday, but it’s unlikely she will. Rocha does not qualify for a nonmedical emergency absence because of the nature of her offense, Clark said.

Waco Independent School District officials were busy Thursday making sure there were no similar wheeled cabinets still in use in the district. Officials sent pictures of the cabinet to principals with the directions to check their campuses for them and, if they find them, put them up until maintenance can take them away.

Waco ISD Police Chief Gil Miller said officials do safety audits of each campus every three years, looking for safety hazards all over the campus. The wheeled cabinet would not have drawn their attention as a possible danger unless it was broken, had a wheel off or was otherwise not operational.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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