Agony of girl, 12 still waiting for 3 mates to reply
A TEARFUL mum has told how her 12-year-old daughter and friends are “inconsolable” – as three children in their school year are still missing.
Fleur Arnold says Mia, whose classroom is a stone’s throw from Grenfell Tower, feels “sad and alone”. Another pupil from her year has been hospitalised following the blaze.
Mia is in Year Seven, the year below teenager Jessica Urbano, who is also among those still missing.
With Kensington Aldridge Academy shut, 180 students from Mia’s year have been welcomed at nearby Burlington Danes Academy.
Fleur, 43, said she “cannot imagine” how her daughter will get over losing her schoolmates.
Retail manager Fleur, who has eight-year-old twins Ruby and Olive with husband Ben, said: “The kids were completely beside themselves.
SCREAMS
“They have all lost people or know someone who has. Mia just wants to be with her friends who understand. “When they’re together they can draw happiness from each other rather than feeling sad and alone.” Fleur, who lives 10 minutes from the tower, learned of the fire when she got a text from staff at 5am saying the school was shut. She said: “My daughter was in shock and wanted to see her friends. One who lived in the building and woke up to screams in the middle of the night came over to our house. “Another of Mia’s friends was on the phone to someone trapped in the tower and is still missing. The kids have social media so they found out more, and quicker.” Fleur’s twin daughters attend a nearby primary school, which was open the day of the fires. Fleur said: “I walked the twins to school, through the smoke and past the burning building. They were saying ‘we don’t wanna go’. They got in my bed the other night after having nightmares.” Mia fears she has lost three friends in the fire – two girls and one boy – and one male friend is in hospital. Her classmates are aged 11 and 12. Fleur said: ”There’s so many people. Everyone knows someone.”