HOUSTON -- Outside Epps Island Elementary in the Klein school district, it was a usual Friday evening, except for an angel-covered balloon and a bouquet of white roses.

The small gesture was left in a playground in memory of little Syrina Salazar.

The 11-year-old girl was running, collapsed and died during a morning P.E. class Friday.

That night, her mother was trying to understand why her little girl was gone.

“She had a stomach ache on Wednesday and she stayed home from school and yesterday she didn't feel very well. Just the same stomach problems, again but she was her normal self,” said April Sanchez.

Family photo

Epps Island Elementary fifth-grader Syrina Salazar, died Friday during P.E. class.

Sanchez said her daughter had been checked for heart disease regularly because it ran in the family. But as of her last checkup, she had no heart problems and was a perfectly normal kid.

“She played with her sisters and she played Webkins. There was no indication that she would be gone today,” Sanchez said.

Several students said they were all running and playing when Syrina collapsed.

“We just saw her on the floor and we just started looking at her,” one student said. “We thought she was playing because she always makes jokes."

The Klein school district said a nurse tried to revive the girl with a portable defibrillator, but her heartbeat never came back.

“I was feeling bad yeah, because she was my friend,” said classmate Leslie Martinez. “She was a great big sister and she was a tomboy. She loved basketball, soccer. God, she was just your average girl.”

Many of the kids in the tight-knit neighborhood around Epps Island Elementary knew Syrina. In her short life, it is clear she was loved so much.

A cause of death has not yet been determined.