More than a month later friends and family are still mourning the loss of a Clay Middle School student who died from the H1N1 virus.

Saturday night family members held a benefit to raise money to help the family pay for funeral expenses.

In October eleven-year-old Mercedes Lewis was taken to the emergency room with flu symptoms and died a short time later from the swine flu.

Her parents say they are still in shock after their healthy daughter died so suddenly.

But they hope maybe her passing brought some awareness to a virus that spread quickly.

“Never would I have thought the day we took her in, she wouldn't be coming home,” recalls Mercedes’ mother Annette Lewis looking back on the day she took her daughter to the emergency room.

“She's gone and I know we are going to miss her but I know she is in much better care than me or her mom can do for her and she had a good eleven years,” says Mercedes’ father Jovan Lewis.

Besides her parents Mercedes leaves behind two older siblings.

Benefit organizers hope to raise at least two thousand dollars.

If you would like to help email Cassandra Lewis at djcasslew@yahoo.com