[Image: A white blonde woman in a grey top with skyscrapers behind her]
Part 23 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
Deborah Lamprell, from the 16th floor of Grenfell Tower
Deborah Lamprell, 45, worked front of house at Opera Holland Park. She was very close to her mother, who described her as “a wonderful,
precious daughter, always smiling and helping others”. She was her parents’ only child, and a football fan who loved cheering on Tottenham Hotspur with her father before he passed away. One of her friends, Gary Maunders, was staying with her the night the fire broke out, and sadly he died too.
Her boss at the opera house remembered her at the inquiry:
“She knew everyone; all the singers knew her, all the orchestra knew her. Everyone loved her because she was so chirpy, and she remembered things. She’d ask after someone’s mum, or their children.”
Deborah’s parents often visited her at Grenfell Tower, but
sometimes found it difficult to reach her floor because of the broken lifts. Her mother said,
“She loved her flat and she kept it lovely but the refurbishment became a nightmare. She had problems with the electricity, problems with the heating. She was very upset about having the boiler in the corridor right when you opened the front door. But I used to think at least when I go she’s got a roof over her head.
She would have me over to stay with her often for a week at
at time. But recently as my legs got worse it was difficult to visit. The
problems with the lifts made it not very nice to be in there when Debbie was at work, because you couldn’t get out easily.”
Deborah also had issues with the plumbing in her flat and the general bad conditions, her friend and co-worker Selina James told The Guardian.
Selina also told the publication about Deborah’s love for
her job:
“Debbie loved coming here. She made friends with everyone, including
patrons. But she was like me. We didn’t have opera backgrounds. I’m more into calypso, soca, carnival. We got to love it. That’s why we kept coming back.”
Opera Holland Park held a memorial and charity performance for Deborah and all the victims of Grenfell, which is available to watch on the internet.
Deborah’s mother Miriam told the Grenfell inquiry that at her daughter’s funeral, a friend approached her and said, “You would not
believe how much people loved her.”
Part 22 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
Eslah Elgwahry, from the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower
There’s no picture of her unfortunately. Eslah Elgwahry came
to the UK from Egypt in the 1980s, and settled down in Grenfell Tower. She had lived there for 30 years at the time she passed away, been married, but lost her husband to cancer.
Her daughter Mariem, who cared for her, also died in the fire.
The one surviving member of the family, Ahmed Elgwahry, said that Mariem would not have wanted to leave her mother. He heard both their last moments over the phone the night of the fire, but the details are very distressing. After he was able to read them out to the Grenfell inquiry, he received a round of applause for his bravery.
He paid a tribute to Eslah, who was 64, at the Grenfell inquiry:
“My mum touched many hearts and was a strong woman who raised Mariem and I on her own since my father passed. She was very youthful, both inside and out. She was also a great authentic Egyptian cook.
“She loved to cook for people including neighbours, friends and family. We all loved her cooking and we always remember and miss the taste of her food.”
He also said the fire had been caused by, “a complete catalogue of failures across the spectrum that resulted in the loss of life in the most horrifying way possible.”
[Image: A smiling woman with a sunflower behind her]
Part 21 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
Mariem Elgawahry, from the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower
Mariem Elgwahry, 27, was embarking on a career in marketing when she
died. She had a degree in business management and was rising up
the ranks in the company Quidco. Just hours before she died, she had booked an interview for another job she wanted.
Mariem enjoyed sports and challenges, and had once completed
an endurance course even after suffering an asthma attack. She also loved
tennis, and after she died the club where she played dedicated a bench to her. She adored her family – she cared for her mother Eslah in their shared flat, and was a doting aunt to her nephew. She had also long mourned the death of her father, who died of cancer when she was still a child.
The one surviving member of the family, Ahmed Elgwahry, delivered extremely distressing testimony to the Grenfell inquiry about his
sister’s and mother’s final moments. On losing them, he said, he “felt like my father died again and a large part of our life, important memories were wiped out, erased in a matter of minutes.”
Mariem, he said, might have been able to escape the fire but
had instead chosen not to leave their mother behind. She was, he said, “beautiful, an ambitious, talented young woman who wanted to succeed in her marketing career and start a family.”
“My sister was confident and strong. She wasn’t afraid to
speak up or speak her mind and was very secure in her words. She had an inner confidence and had grown into a strong and ambitious woman.”
Along with Nadia Choucair, Mariem had protested the poor conditions in Grenfell Tower. Both women were threatened with legal action for doing so.
“There was the misconception that those living [in Grenfell] were uneducated and should be simply grateful for living in the Royal Borough
of Kensington,” Ahmed said.
(Rabia) with her arm around her son (Hamid) who is next to her husband (Kamru). Image 2: A smiling man (Hanif) next to a smiling woman (Husna)]
Part 20 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
The Begum family, from the 17th floor of Grenfell Tower
Husna, Hanif and Hamid Begum reportedly told relatives over the phone that they couldn’t bear to leave the building without their elderly
parents, Rabia and Kamru. They all died in the same flat.
One of their cousins, Samir Ahmad, talked about them to The Times. He mentioned that Kamru had disabilities, a fact that also came up in the inquiry when his son questioned why he had been placed on the 17th floor.
“Their dad could barely walk anyway. What were they going to do? Abandon him?…Hats off to them. They didn’t show cowardice. They stayed with their mum and dad.
“Family was so important to them. They lived together and they died together.”
Husna was due to get married the next month. “The last time
I saw her, all she could talk about was the wedding. Everything was arranged, all the invitations were sent. She was looking forward to it, getting married to the person that she loves,” her cousin Abdul Khan said.
Husna worked at Carphone Warehouse and was 22 years old when she died. Her one surviving brother, Mohammed Hakim, paid tribute to her:
“She marvelled at the universe and had a burning desire to travel and experience as much of the world as possible. Husna was an intellectual and often indulged in creative writing and studying history. She was an amazingly good cook too; she could make any kind of dish or dessert and it would always come out delicious and right the first time. If you ever ate her cooking, you would always ask to eat more.”
He paid tribute to his brothers too. About 27-year-old Hamid
he said:
“His fun-loving personality always shone through, even when
he wasn’t feeling his best … He loved living, he wanted to do so much not just for himself, but for everyone around him.
He was very mature for his age, and wise … How quickly he was taken away. The world has lost a magnificent soul.”
And about Hanif:
“Hanif was an extremely passionate person when it came to
faith and God, as well as helping others in need. Hanif has always been
extremely creative from a young age. He was brilliantly talented in drawing and design, and adored animation. He would often create his own animations or create beautiful pictures for our whole family.”
The Begum parents, Rabia and Komru, both came from Sylhet in Bangladesh. Rabia was social, friendly, and a good cook. “She was the most
beautiful, generous, caring and loving mother anyone could ever ask for,” her surviving son said. “Most of all, she was my mum.”
Two of Komru’s sons, Mohammed Hakim and a son from his first
marriage, Sujon Miah, spoke about their memories of him. “My father was an amazing father, a dedicated husband and a good Muslim who prayed five times daily, and a family man,” Momammed Hakim said. “He loved watching a lot of nature programmes as well as a lot of action movies – anything with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Lee, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Jet Li were among his favourites.”
Sujon Miah described him as a man who, “had done plenty for
the local community. He donated hefty amounts to build mosques and orphanages in the area, supported many families within the clan in distress. He was a deeply religious person, I never saw him missing any prayer.”
The whole family were deeply religious, people who knew them said. Due to the manner in which they died and the need for investigation, their funerals were even more difficult than they might have been. After the funeral of Husna and Rabia, cousin Abdul Rahim spoke of his anger.
“We want to know why no fire brigade hoses could reach
beyond the lower floors or why cranes weren’t used to rescue people. Why won’t the authorities admit how many people died? Why didn’t they make the building safe? Why weren’t they there to help us?”
And at the inquiry, Mohammed Hakim spoke of his grief:
“As a result of this fire not only did I lose five members of my immediate family, but I have also been made an orphan.
I can say with my hand on my heart that I’m extremely proud of my family for staying close to each other in their last moments. That my siblings did not leave my parents behind even though they may have had the chance to escape.
My parents had mobility issues. My father had strokes, he should not have been on the 17th floor, we complained about this numerous times.
[Image 1: A smiling man looking away from the camera. Image 2: A woman holding a young child. Image 3: Three smiling girls aged between 3 and 13]
Part 19 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
The Choucair family, from the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower
Three generations of the Choucair family died at Grenfell Tower. These were parents Nadia and Bassem, children Fatima, Zaynab and Mierna,
and grandmother Sirria. (There doesn’t seem to be a picture of her unfortunately.)
One of the most circulated images of the Grenfell fire was a woman leaning out of a window waving a flag. It later transpired that this was Nadia.
The 33-year-old was a nursery school worker whose pupils adored her. She ran an after-school cooking club that was constantly overcrowded, and loved to chat to and play games with the children. Her three daughters attended that same school, Avondale.
The oldest daughter, 13-year-old Mierna, was one of the deputy head girls. (Another was Firdaws Hashim, who also died.) Her teacher described her as “an exceptional role model who always gave 100%”. She loved pop music, excelled in literacy classes, and designed costumes for the school’s World Book Day. She wanted to be either a doctor or a lawyer, her uncle told
the Grenfell inquiry.
Her young cousin Yasmeen paid a tribute to her:
I miss you. I miss the times when we used to play together. I miss the times when you used to protect and defend me like a big sister would. Now that you have left, I haven’t got a big sister any more.
I miss you so, so much. I miss when we used to go on trips and after-school clubs together. You broke my heart when you left. I never got a chance to say goodbye. I miss you very, very much.
I will do anything just to get my big sister back. Love you loads.
Middle child Fatima, 11, loved to play sports. She was more
mischievous than her sister, but was described by her teacher as “extremely polite and a pleasure to know” She had a close-knit group of friends who she spent all her time with, and played for the school football team.
Yasmeen paid a tribute to her, too:
I miss you. I miss the sound of your voice in my ears. I miss when we used to play together and have fun. I remember all the games that we used to play. You’re the best.
I love you so, so much and I miss you a lot. I will never ever forget you. I miss the way you smile, how it brightened up my day – my world.
When you left, my heart has been shattered into millions of pieces. Each piece of my broken heart is being crushed every time. With every piece being blown around by pain that I feel for you. I miss you. I miss you so, so much.
The youngest daughter was Zaynab, who was just three years old. She began attending her mother’s nursery just a month before she died.
“She had endless questions she wanted us to answer, and I wish we could have helped her find the answers to many more,” her nursery teacher said at the inquiry.
Their father, Marks & Spencer store worker Bassem, died alongside them. He loved his wife very much, friends remembered, and was a funny
and generous person. His sister-in-law Sawson Choucair released a statement to the Grenfell inquiry talking about him.
“Bassem was working on terrible pay in restaurant so I got him a job at M&S where I worked. He was quickly promoted and very strict with staff. But he made work fun for me.
During the fire Bassem said everything would be alright, because he was trained in fire safety.”
She went on,
“Everything has been taken away from me: my mum, my sister,
the brother-in-law that I worked with every day, and my nieces. I lost
everything I owned. This should not have happened. We do not want excuses. We demand justice for every single family. We are broken.”
Hisam Choucair, Nadia’s brother and Sirria’s son, also read out a statement. His mother, he said, “was a proud, devout woman, who never
said a bad word about anyone. She was kind and caring and I will miss her for ever.” She was determined that all her children received an education, too. “Because she had not had the opportunity, she wanted it for us.” Sirria worked at the Royal Marsden hospital. But she had arthritis, her son said, and could barely leave the building because of the condition of the Grenfell lifts. Hisam had never trusted the condition of the high-rise:
“No bank would give [Nadia and Bassem] a mortgage as soon as
they found out they were on the 22nd floor. This led me to believe that the banks were aware of something within high rise social housing that we were not aware of.”
Nadia and Mariem Elgwahry, who also died, protested the conditions
of Grenfell Tower before the fire claimed 72 lives. Reportedly, they were
threatened with legal action for raising complaints.
[Image: A white-haired man looking thoughtfully at the camera]
Part 18 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
Hesham Rahman, from the 23rd floor of Grenfell Tower
Hesham Rahman, 57, loved living in Grenfell Tower. “He was so proud of that flat,” his nephew Karim Mussilhy said of him. Like many people he made a final phone call from the tower – he called his mother to tell her he would be okay. But sadly, he died.
His nephew has written articles speaking of his anger at what happened to him.
“Later we learned he didn’t make it out of the tower. He had trouble
walking and often used a walking stick so would have struggled to make it down the stairs from the top floor.
He tragically died alone in his flat and many others perished that night
in the tower. He was identified on 25 August and finally laid to rest on 30
September.
The Grenfell Tower fire has broken the hearts of our close community but above all it has united us in the fight for justice, to make sure that a
tragedy of this scale will never happen again.”
He also spoke out at, and about, the Grenfell inquiry:
“However, I was very mindful about censorship, as the inquiry asked for transcripts of what the families and survivors were going to say beforehand. Some families were asked to change certain words and sentences – to avoid naming companies or for being too political or straying too far from tributes to our loved ones.
So what did I do? I went off-script from the transcript I had shared. My point was: why are we having this public inquiry? This is the relatives’ time to talk. I thought they were giving us the right to pay tribute, not controlling what we would say. Our families have been torn apart for ever and our lives will never be the same. If someone wants to stand up there and say that we were failed and neglected, then that is their right. The fact is, our relatives are being remembered now because they were left to die.”
Hesham was a friendly and generous joker, Karim said. “I remember him teaching me how to write and read Arabic and always stuffing my pockets with chocolates and sweets… He could see the Westway football pitches from his flat where I regularly played and he would sometimes watch me and message me after playing making fun of how rubbish I was.”
[Image 1: A blurry picture of a black woman in a purple hijab, smiling]
Part 17 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
The Elsanosi -Ahmed family, from the 23rd floor of
Grenfell Tower
Fathia Ali Ahmed Elsanosi, 77 years old, was a primary school teacher who came to Britain as a refugee after her husband was killed in Sudan in the ‘80s. She was a loving and hard-working mother who was well-known among the Sudanese community in London, and was a very artistic person, creating her own Sudanese thobes and upcycling old clothes. She packed her flat with art, antiques and plants.
Her friend Wafa said at the inquiry,
“She was creative at sewing and it was a source of income for her… She could stitch material to make beautiful saris. She would also create things from leather and decorate plain shoes and handbags with leather items she had made.”
Two of her five children, Isra (33, some sources spell her
name as Esra) and Abufars (39) died alongside her. Abufars didn’t live in the tower, but was visiting his mother and sister for Ramadan. He was a keen businessman who had recently opened a fishmongers with his brother. “He was a lovely boy. He was a very hard worker, but very supportive to his mum, always caring about her,” a family friend, Wafa Hussein Osman, said at the inquiry.
Isra was a charity volunteer, her brother Abubak said. “She
enjoyed giving without taking anything back, because I think what she was
taking is the ultimate prize that somebody can get, which is seeing the
happiness from others,”
Isra loved Brighton and the funfair rides there, as well as
animals and food. She was married to Said Essaouini, a man she met in 2014 at an internet café. He spoke about his loss to the Grenfell inquiry, under pictures which he had drawn of her. “I’m a very lucky man that I had such a beautiful flower in my life,” he said. “I will never find a woman like
her ever, ever, and I am ripped to pieces… I feel like I lost my world. Every Friday I go to the cemetery and I sit down and I talk to her for two hours – I know she is listening to me.” He added that he believed Isra could have potentially escaped the fire, but “she would never leave her mum.”
Fathia’s sister Hayat also released a statement to the inquiry:
“Fathia came to this country as a refugee seeking security and safety after her struggle with the regime in Sudan, where she and her children had been subjected to harassment.
“She felt safe here in London. Because of the way she died, this now feels like an illusion for us and definitely for her.
“Our trust in this country has been destroyed. I cannot begin to describe my life without my sister, her death was a terrible shock for me and I find it very difficult to cope without her.”
There aren’t any pictures of Isra or Abufars, unfortunately.
[Image 1: A little girl in a blue dress and yellow cardigan. Image 2: A little girl in a black cardigan. Image 3: A woman in a black hijab smiling at something offscreen]
Part 16 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
The Ibrahim-Hassan family, from the 23rd floor of
Grenfell Tower
Rania Ibrahim and her young daughters Fethia and Hania all died in the fire. Rania broadcast a video on Facebook Live before she died, which her family, including her husband Hassan who was overseas, saw. Two of her neighbors, Isra Ibrahim and Fathia Ahmed, are believed to have sought refuge in her flat that night, as all their bodies were found together.
Rania was born in Egypt, but came to Britain in 2009 to help a sister who had cancer. While there she met her husband, and settled down. She loved England, her friends said, and would use Snapchat to tell all her friends so. She also loved clothes, shopping and cooking – she would happily dispense homemade food to her neighbours and her daughters’ school.
One of Rania’s sisters, Rasha, told the Grenfell inquiry more about her personality:
“She was happiness on earth. No one would sit with Rania and not smile.
Since the time of the incident I hear Rania’s voice all the time. I used to consult her on everything. Whenever I used to get angry she would calm me down.
I still write to her and talk to her even though she’s departed. I miss hearing her voice.”
Five-year-old Fethia wanted to be a teacher when she grew up, her aunt said.
“In kindergarten, Fethia was like a mother to her classmates. She was a leading character. She would care for her classmates, making sure they ate and stayed calm while away from their families during the day. She liked other children.”
Three-year-old Hania was a “little duck,” Rasha said. She loved food and drawing, and hugging her older sister. Her mother was always happy to indulge her, letting her paint furniture with nail varnish even.
Hassan spoke at the Grenfell inquiry, telling the board that “for me, life has fully stopped.” He also spoke of how his wife had always feared the building might catch fire:
She asked me one question – if there is a fire, what do we have to do? I asked one of my friends who had lived there.
When I spoke to my friend I asked him my wife’s question, ‘if there is a fire, what do we have to do?’ and he tells me ‘Hassan, don’t worry, this building is safe – if the flat next to you is on fire then nothing
happens to your flat’.
I come back to my wife and I tell her: ‘Listen love I’m going to leave the flat very nice for you and our two kids, don’t worry’ and she said ‘you know anywhere you go, anywhere that you stay, I’m going to be with you’.
“I think that’s the only mistake I made, bringing them to Grenfell Tower.”
A funeral for the family took place in September 2017, burying Rania, Fethia and Hania together alongside Isra and Fathia. Hundreds of
people attended the service.
[Image: A blonde white woman and brown-haired white man taking a selfie together]
Part 15 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi, from the 23rd floor of
Grenfell Tower
Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi, 26 and 27 years old,
were an Italian couple who both worked as architects. They each called their parents before they died in the tower. Details of their final conversations can be found online, but are very distressing.
Marco worked at the London-based Creative Ideas & Architecture Office, while Gloria had worked at Peregrine Bryant Architecture Building and Conservation for only a week.
Macro loved roller-skating and football, and socialising with large groups of people. Gloria was shy, Marco’s mother told The Guardian, but very loving:
“She tiptoed into our lives … but as we got to know her, she was a ray of light. She was very beautiful and caring. I knew exactly why my son wanted to be with her. They had a great love between them, she always had her arms wrapped around him.”
Gloria’s home town of Camposampiero mourned for her: large crowds came out, flags were lowered to half-mast, and shop shutters were closed. Marco’s family were given items he had had with him when he died. “My wife kept a shred of the trench coat that Marco had bought in London,” his father told the Italian press.
At the Grenfell inquiry, Gloria’s mother spoke of her anger. She said she hoped the person who decided to place flammable cladding on the tower could feel the pain of the survivors and victims. “I hope this anger is going to be a positive anger. I would like this anger to help to find out the truth of what happened,” she said, and there was applause at the end of her speech.
Many tributes were paid to the couple as time went on. The Grenfellove foundation was set up in honour of them, and Gloria’s company set up a scholarship, the Gloria e Marco Award, for architects. And in 2018 Marco’s mother Daniela created a children’s book about the couple in which they, recreated as a knight and a princess, lived happily ever after together.
[Image 1: A little girl in a party dress and hat, being held by her smiling mother. Image 2: A man looking at the camera and smiling, against a wall-patterned background. Image 3: A woman looking directly at the camera, wearing a pink checked hijab]
Part 14 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.
The Tuccu-Ahmedin family and their cousin Amna
from the 23rd floor of Grenfell Tower
Three-year-old Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin died with her mother Amal Ahmedin, 35, and father Mohamednur Tuccu, 44. Her cousin, 27-year-old Amna Mahmud Idris, was visiting the family the night of the fire and also died.
Mohamednur was a football lover with a BSc in genetics and a MSc in bioinformatics. He fled Eritea after opposing the government, went to Nigeria and then to the UK, where he became a security guard. His brother Ibrahim Toukou spoke at the Grenfell inquiry:
“I will never forget how he was always smiling. who knew him described him as kind and loving. His phrase was ‘don’t worry’. I dreamed of being together with our families and children. I wanted so badly to introduce Amaya to my daughter who is seven. My children do not know Mohamednur and his family have passed away. We have told the kids they have gone away on a trip. My mother is not accepting Mohamednur’s death. It’s hard for any of us to even think about it, never mind talk about it.”
Amal’s sister Winta talked about Amal and Amaya, whose bodies were found together. Amal, she said,
“…taught me how precious life was and the importance of the kind of people you surround yourself with. She was supposed to be here, alive… She loved her friends and family so much, especially her daughter who was the love of her life. Amal was an incredible mother, motherhood brought out a layer of her personality that we were all in awe of….
“For the rest of my life I will never accept they are gone. I will continue planning Amaya’s life: what she will be doing on her 10th birthday, her 18th and 21st and the rest of her life. We will miss them so much.”
Her sister Feruza also spoke out. Amal spoke five languages, she said, and “her infectious joy would light up a room.”
“Those we grew up with, who shared our fondest memories with, celebrated and mourned, have had their lives stolen from them while the whole of London watched.“
Amna, who was also born in Eritea, was a keen artist. Her husband Ibrahim called her “all my life” at the Grenfell inquiry. “She would support me at all times. She came to live with me in the UK in March 2016. After one year I lost her forever.”
