TEENAGERS IN LOVE

Taylor fell in love with Garcia at Gulliver, where they were two teenagers from opposite sides of Miami's cultural spectrum. He was black, she was Hispanic. Garcia grew up in Key Biscayne, the daughter of a well-to-do perfume distributor of Cuban heritage.

Taylor grew up in working-class South Miami-Dade. His parents never married, and after a long court battle, his father got custody of him.

''He cried and cried when we were separated,'' said Taylor's mother, Donna Junor. 'He said, `Mom, I don't want to go.' But as a single mother, I couldn't take care of him at that time.''

Junor, 47, keeps busy pursuing a degree in religion at Miami-Dade College near her townhouse in Homestead. She'd like to be a teacher. She wants to make Taylor proud, as he made her proud. But it's been hard to concentrate during the past year.

''I spend a lot of private time to myself crying,'' Junor said. She sat on her sofa, wrapped in an orange and green UM blanket. Her grandchildren's toys covered half the floor. ``I thank God that Sean made it as far as he did. The only thing that holds me together is my faith.''

Junor was uncomfortable talking about herself and her son, who had a tattoo that read ''Donna'' and a passage from Psalms on his left arm.

''Sean got his standoffish nature from me, but once you got to know him, he was a beautiful person,'' she said.

She makes sure to visit with Garcia and Jackie once a week. ''Little Jackie will never remember or understand, but she'll want to know about him,'' Junor said.

Taylor designated rooms in his Palmetto Bay house for Junor, his great-grandmother, his half-sister and half-brother. He wanted to unify his family. They all live separately now, and the house is empty.

On Sunday, he'll bring them together again, for a fleeting afternoon inside a football stadium.

''He went out in a sad way,'' Garcia said. ``But he went out a hero.''

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