Powerful video tributes to the El Wahabi family are being played, including footage of their burned out flat in Grenfell tower. The voice of a bereaved woman remembers the moment she saw Faouzia’s recovered remains.
After I saw the bones in the mortuary I was worried I was not going to remember the smile. But I’m happy that I do remember the smile: always happy, always bubbly, that’s Faouzia.
A statement read out on behalf of Faouzia’s mother traced her life from birth. It ended:
How am I supposed to cope during the summer when everyone comes to see their family and I will be waiting to see my beautiful daughter and grandchildren?
Robert Booth
Members of the audience are being given a few minutes to leave the room before video tributes to Faouzia and Yasin El Wahabi.
Some 20 people have decided to leave the room before these next videos which the inquiry has been warned will show the burning tower. The warning follows the incident on Tuesday when two people collapsed and many others were upset when such images were shown without warning.
Ahmed Chellat is writing out the commemoration of the El Wahabi family on behalf of his wife Ghita, brother of Abdulaziz El Wahabi, who is on pilgrimage in Mecca.
My brother was the first born in the family so he was very special, we all loved him ... He was very kind, generous, selfless and respectful person, who always put a smile on everyone’s face.
Chellat, flanked by his daughter, is faltering as he reads out the tribute. In it his wife remembers how Yasin and Nur Huda used to spend time with them at their house, and how she or her husband would walk them home at night.
I will miss little things like this.
A young cousin of Mehdi El Wahabi is now reading out his commemoration.
“I couldn’t have read like that at nine-years old and I think you did a beautiful job,” she is told.
Tributes are being paid to Nur Huda El Wahabi by her younger cousin.
I was younger than Nur Huda but I remember watching her growing into a beautiful young woman. I’m so thankful to have shared 12 years of my life with Nur Huda.
The girl giving the tributes remembered how her older cousin looked out for her. She read out tributes from former teachers of Nur Huda. Emma Jones, who taught Nur Huda at primary school said:
Nur Huda’s generous smile and sense of humour stay with me to this day ... Nur Huda had a strong sense of her identity and was always true to herself and what she believed in.
Two families of five and a 12-year-old girl are among victims of the Grenfell Tower fire to be commemorated at the public inquiry on Friday.
It will be the fifth day of tributes to the 72 dead, which are being held before chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick begins hearing evidence at the probe.
Due to be remembered are the El-Wahabi family, who were killed as they awaited rescue from their home on the 21st floor on the night of June 14 last year.
They included father Abdulaziz, 52, mother Faouzia, 41, and children Yasin, 20, Nur Huda, 16, and Mehdi, eight.
Abdulaziz’s sister Hana told reporters at the time: “He said he had been told to stay inside, stay in one room together and put towels under the door.”
The family, she said, were last seen waving frantically out of their window.
Another young victim of the fire, Jessica Urbano Ramirez, is expected to be honoured by her loved ones during the hearing.
She died just weeks before her 13th birthday and is thought to have run up to the 23rd floor to escape the flames.
Friday should also feature a presentation commemorating a second family wiped out by the fire. Hashim Kedir, 44, died alongside wife Nura Jemal, 35, daughter Firdows Hashim, 12, and sons Yahya Hashim, 13, and Yaqub Hashim, six. They had been in their 22nd floor flat when the blaze took hold.
During a busy day for the inquiry, portraits of three other victims will be heard in the morning. Vincent Chiejina, 60, who was recovered from the 17th floor, Ligaya Moore, 78, a Filipino grandmother who had lived in the UK for 43 years, and Steve Power, 63, who was recovered from the 15th floor, are all expected to be remembered.
Personal portraits of the 72 victims are expected to continue until next Wednesday at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, South Kensington.
