Sean Taylor's dream house is a ghost house, its front gate padlocked and windows covered by hurricane shutters. The grass he mowed with meticulous care has grown shaggy. The heavy bag he punched with fanatical discipline hangs motionless from a tree.

The house on Old Cutler Road has been unoccupied since the football star was shot in his bedroom one year ago in the middle of the night. He died defending his fiancée and baby daughter from panicked burglars who assumed he was away at a Washington Redskins game. He was 24.

The house, which Taylor bought so his splintered family could live together -- he even painted the rooms in their favorite colors -- slipped into foreclosure last month.

''I never went back,'' said Jackie Garcia, the woman Taylor planned to marry and the mother of Jacqueline Michelle Marie Taylor, a 2-year-old who has her father's smile.

Taylor's loved ones often feel lost without him. He was their center of gravity. This is a story about his influence on them as they try to move on: Garcia, who first met Taylor when they were 15; his father, the police chief who honed Taylor's talent; his mother, whom he adored; and his half-sister, now a prison guard, whose birthday party led inadvertently to his death.

Grief over a life cut short persists. Thanksgiving will be a difficult occasion, as will Taylor's induction into the Redskins' Ring of Fame on Sunday at FedEx Field. The pregame ceremony, with his family in attendance, will be a posthumous honoring of his career as a fierce All-Pro safety and a mourning of lost potential.

Not only was Taylor coming into his own as a player but as a man who had at last shed the shell of distrust that kept him protected but misunderstood.

''It will be a day of joy and pain and reflection,'' said Taylor's father, Pete. He pulled out an oversized pair of sunglasses. ``I just bought these. I'm going to wear them and put a little piece of napkin underneath, and maybe nobody will see me cry.''

Garcia will take little Jackie to the tribute after initially declining the invitation. She avoids attention because Taylor was a private person who would have wanted it that way, she said.

''I do better when I keep the wounds closed,'' she said. ``For my daughter, it's going to be very weird. She relates the Redskins to her dad. She will recognize the stadium. She's been asking a lot about him. She doesn't see him, so she knows something is up.

``It's a bittersweet trip, but in the long run, I think it will be a good memory for her.''

Taylor's lockers at the Redskins' stadium and practice facility have been encased in glass, frozen in time with his No. 21 jersey and cleats inside. Clinton Portis and Santana Moss, Taylor's teammates, are inspired daily to ''be like Sean,'' Moss said.

Back in Florida City, where Pete Taylor is chief of police, he keeps a painting of Sean in his office and wears a white rubber bracelet inscribed with ``RIP.''

`UPS AND DOWNS'

''The emotional ups and downs come every day,'' Pete Taylor said. ``You never want your child to go before you do.''

Pete Taylor, 47, has a 7-year-old son, Gabriel, who reminds him of Sean. Gabriel plays safety and running back, as Sean did.

''Watching that boy make a hit the other day -- whew! -- he is going to be something special,'' he said.

One way he copes with the loss of his eldest son is by speaking more frequently at schools and sporting events, warning kids about the dangers of guns and greed.

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