Shropshire Star

Grenfell Tower victim’s sister ‘heartbroken at 12-year-old’s death’

Jessica Urbano Ramirez was two weeks from her 13th birthday when she was killed.

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Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 12, died in the Grenfell Tower fire (Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA)

The sister of a 12-year-old killed in the Grenfell Tower fire said it breaks her heart that she will not be able to watch her “grow up into a beautiful girl”.

Jessica Urbano Ramirez was two weeks from her 13th birthday, which she planned to celebrate with a slumber party, when she died in the June 14 blaze.

Her father Ramiro Urbano, mother Adriana Ramirez and sister Melanie Urbano Ramirez paid tribute to the “bubbly girl” in a video on the fifth day of commemoration hearings at the public inquiry.

Melanie said: “Not a day goes by where she doesn’t cross my mind.

“And the thought of not being able to watch her grow up into a beautiful girl, and watch her go to university, have her first job and just be there as an older sister at the time she would need me breaks my heart.

Speaking before the video was played, she said watching other tributes this week had been difficult and the family “all wish she could have done more and fulfilled her potential.”

Her father remembered Jessica as “a bubbly girl, happy, cheeky, full of life” and a “busy bee” who would keep active by swimming, cooking and baking.

She also loved shopping and dressing up.

Mr Urbano spoke next to a shrine which displayed Jessica’s name in pink and black and a candle underneath a photograph of her wearing a tiara.

“My baby was a daddy’s girl, she was the apple of my eyes,” he said, adding: “Her contagious smile was present at every opportunity”.

He said in the video: “Now you ask me how I feel after all this. There are no words to describe the feelings of emptiness inside us all.

“It’s only the people in the same circumstances as us that can understand this pain.

“We will have to live with not having her around for the rest of our lives.

“Every day, every hour, and every minute we will lose concentration on whatever we are doing, whether it is a family gathering, or at work, or even alone at home, because she will be in our thoughts forever.”

The footage showed Jessica jumping on a trampoline, dressed up as a fairy and smiling next to several birthday cakes.

A photograph of the four family members all wearing Christmas jumpers was shown.

There was also footage of her funeral, where mourners wore white.

Her mother said in the video: “Our life is destroyed without her. We will always have a hole in our hearts and I will never be the same.”

She added: “I will always keep her in my heart, love her and miss her every single day.

“Sleep tight baby girl and one day we will meet again.”

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