1. My name is Miriam Lamprell. I am 79 years of age and I lost my only child, Debbie, in the fire at Grenfell Tower. I have asked Mike Volpe to read this because it is impossibly hard for me to stand up and read this out, but I am here. And I will be coming to the Inquiry, as difficult as it will be to find out what happened to Debbie.
2. I had Debbie in the maternity hospital in Walthamstow in 1971 and brought her home to the flat in Hinds Park where I still live. Debbie and her father, my husband, Reg, lived there together right through her childhood and she stayed with us all through her early adulthood when she took her first jobs, until Debbie moved out when she was 31. We were an incredibly close and happy family. We loved Debbie and Debbie was devoted to us. We were blessed with Debbie in a way that is very special.
3. Because Debbie was an only child we encouraged her to have her friends round to play as much as possible. She wasn't a pushy person even then but she was always extremely popular. She always loved other people's company and was always surrounded by other people. So the flat was teeming with other children. They loved to play out on our balcony which over looked the fields and park that are opposite our house.
4. Debbie always mixed with people from all sorts of backgrounds. There were kids from the local Estate, and kids who lived in private houses - we lived in a flat - but they all loved coming to play - because Debbie brought them together.
5. Where we lived was almost like the country. Right opposite our flat was a huge field and a park which was a perfect place for Debbie and her friends to play. There was a big field at the back of the school too so the kids had a whale of a time growing up. When it was winter and it snowed they used to get plastic bags and slide down the slopes in these big black bin bags. It was a lovely way to grow up. All of them together. She just loved being with other people. And I remember every night when it was time to come in she'd say: 'It's always me first, just because I live on the doorstep it's not fair that it's always me that has to come in first.'
6. Even at the funeral several of her friends came up and told me: I remember Debbie would always complain you'd make her go in first; even as an adult she'd complain that it was 'always me'. She didn't want to go in because she loved people. She loved being with people. Having fun.
7. When I think of Debbie, I think of her laughing. She was always laughing. In many ways she had a blissful childhood. Not because it was so privileged but because we were all happy.
8. Reg and I encouraged her to do lots of things. We wanted her to try lots of different things, a bit of everything, so she could choose what she liked: she did ballet and tap lessons, we took her to the theatre and to see the ballet, she learned the guitar. We went to museums together. I always brought her up to believe. She was christened and confirmed and went to Sunday School.
9. She adored sport. She played tennis. She loved watching darts, snooker, and even drag racing - which she'd go and see a lot when she was older. In her younger days, she used to play snooker but as she got older I'd say she was more of an 'armchair' sports fan. She was always a big supporter of Spurs. She loved watching Spurs play especially with her Dad.
10. Debbie really worshiped her Dad. People used to say whenever you looked for Reg - Debbie was there. She was his 'treasure' and she felt the same about him. They would go off blackberrying together, but by the time they came back there'd be a big tribe of kids with them both. That's what her childhood was like. Fun and good.
11. We both worked hard. Reg was a Painter and Decorator and I worked as a dinner lady in the local school for disabled children until I was 73. But we gave Debbie everything we could and Debbie was always appreciative and wanted to make the most of all of these experiences.
12. We used to go to the museums in Kensington and Chelsea and up to Hyde park and I think that's where she got the idea that she'd like to live more in that area. It's very different to where she spent her childhood, much more urban, not really my thing but I think we'd inspired Debbie to find a way of living which suited her. Which made her feel happy and fulfilled. Because she was happy and fulfilled.
13. When she left school she started to work in a bank but really she wanted to work in hospitality. She loved working with people, looking after them, making sure they had a good time. So she found a job in Holiday Inn in Gloucester Road which is how she ended up living in West London. She lived at home with us but the traveling to West London, especially late at night or very early in the morning, got to be too much. It wasn't particularly safe for a young woman traveling on her own so she moved out to be near her work.
14. I was always worried about her living in the Bedsits, or Studio flats as she called it. It really wasn't appropriate for someone in their thirties who worked so hard. The conditions were not good and I used to badger her to put her name down with the Council to get somewhere proper to live, somewhere safe and decent. Of course, it feels terrible to have done that now. Because she was given the flat in Grenfell.
15. She loved her little 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. That was very upsetting to her. But I used to think: well, when I go, at least she's got a roof over her head.
16. My husband died eight years ago and that was a heavy blow to us both. I realised I had to pull myself together and I said to Debbie she should concentrate on herself, getting her own life back together but she was incredibly kind and supportive.
17. If anything it brought us closer together. She would text me every morning and if for whatever reason she'd not heard by nine o clock she'd be ringing the neighbours, making sure they went round to see if everything was alright. And then she would ring me at night or if she was working late at the Opera she would text me in the morning and ring to talk in the afternoon, then always text at night - to say she was home safely so I wouldn't worry. 'Mum, I'm home, everything's OK, Love you.'
18. She would have me over to stay with her, often for a week at a time. We'd go all around the area, we'd go to Hyde Park together. But recently as my legs have 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.
19. She really loved her work. She was really really happy with her life. You'd rarely see my Debbie without a smile. People took to Debbie because she was an easy, friendly person. She would help anybody.
20. She loved traveling. Sometimes I'd go with her, sometimes she'd go with a friend. We've been to Paris, Germany, Holland, Greece and Spain. But she went further abroad to places like Sri Lanka. She loved exploring new places. Finding out new things. Meeting new people. She just really loved life.
21. But she also loved London and her home. She counted herself as blessed. She would visit me every Saturday morning and she would always bring me two scratch cards and she used to say. "I don't know why I bring you these scratch cards because we don't need money. We are so lucky with what we've got. "
22. And that's how she was. Happy. She was happy with her friends, with her job, with her life, her neighbours, with living in Ladbroke Grove. That is the cruel thing. She did not want more. She felt blessed. My neighbour downstairs used to say she knew when Debbie had come to visit because she could hear the laughing coming from upstairs.
23. People envied me because she was so good to me and people come up to me even now and say for that short time you had more love from Debbie than most people get in a whole lifetime.
24. It wasn't until I lost Debbie that I realised how many friends she had. And what she meant to so many people. The kids who used to play with her had mostly moved away to the Scilly Isles and Wales and Brighton. But they all came to the funeral.
25. And one of her friends came up to me and said I know you've lost her and she's gone young but she's left so many footprints and she said you would not believe how many people love her.
26. And it's the lives she touched I had no idea about that have moved me. I have been told how hugely popular and respected Debbie was at Opera Holland Park, where she worked as a safety officer. So many people there, even the singers and orchestral players as well as the patrons knew and loved Debbie – not just because she was responsible for checking things and looking after them but because she was always interested and concerned with their families and lives. I am so pleased that an inscribed stone has been laid at the theatre in Holland Park in Debbie's memory – right at the spot that she would sit and listen to the performances. A permanent tribute to her. I got a message from a lady who lived in the walkways and she wrote to me. She had no idea how to contact me but she eventually tracked me through her carer and Opera Holland Park and she wrote to me to say that she and Debbie had become friends and she loved Debbie and she'd said a Mass for her. Someone I had no idea about.
27. To me we were just a normal family and Debbie was just a normal person. But the morning of the funeral the whole school where I was the dinner lady stood outside as we passed - the headmaster, his wife, the teachers. Because they knew Debbie. They remembered her. And although I had no idea, they loved her too.
28. I am bereft without her. If she'd died a normal death I would have been able to hold her, comfort her, say goodbye. But I feel a part of me has been ripped out. Nothing seems worth it any more.
29. She touched so many lives with her kindness, and her smile, so many people come up to me and mention her smile, because she did have a smile - all of the time.
30. I don't really know what made her so positive. It's not that she had so much money or anything; but she had her freedom, she did what she wanted to do, and she loved people. And I think that made her rich.
31. The night she died she texted me: "I've just got in Mum, all's well, goodnight Godbless." I thought that's OK she's safe. I went to bed and got up in the morning and I didn't have a daughter.
32. Her body was burned in the tower so to say she was cremated is a strange thing. But her ashes were laid to rest on the 20th of April in the City of London Crematorium. Next door to her father.
33. I am an old woman with nothing else left. And maybe it's taken losing Debbie to realise we weren't normal. Debbie was an exceptional, extraordinary person. And I was completely blessed to have her as my daughter.
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