A man had to identify the bodies of his wife and young daughters on his birthday after they died in a house fire last week. Aboubacarr Drammeh, who turned 40 on Wednesday, spent his birthday in the hospital mortuary.
He paid tribute to wife of eight years, Fatoumatta Hydara, and their daughters Fatimah and Naeemah Drammeh, aged three and one, who all died from smoke inhalation following a blaze at their first-floor flat in Fairisle Close, Clifton, Nottingham, in the early hours of Sunday.
In a statement, Mr Drammeh described the past week as the "hardest" of his life and said he would never get over spending part of his birthday in the hospital mortuary. He said: "I had to go in there and see the bodies. That was just so hard."
Mr Drammeh was in the process of securing visas for his family to join him in Minnesota, in the US, where he works as a biomedical technologist. "That's not going to happen now and I can't understand why," he said.
After being informed of the tragic incident at 5am, he went straight to the airport to fly back to the UK. "I've done that journey so many times, but all the other times it's been exciting because I was going to see my family.
"This time around - I still can't recall it. It's just a blur."
Mr Drammeh described his wife as a "very faithful person", who was "caring" and would help "whoever she could". He said of his children: "They were both really happy children. They loved spending time with their grandparents and got along really well as siblings."
Dawda Dibba, 44, Fatoumatta's uncle, said: "She was an incredible person with incredible passion. She was someone who cared a lot about people.
"As soon as she met you, you were part of the family. She was such a bubbly and nice person and had a really good sense of humour.
"The two children will be greatly missed. Other children in the family loved playing with them and it is very hard to explain to them what has happened.
"As a family, this has broken us. You can't recover from this."
Bubacarr Dibba, 47, another of Fatoumatta's uncles, who flew in from Germany following the fire, added: "There are many ways to remember her. I will always remember her through the videos and messages she sent of the children. She was someone that put everyone else before herself.
"I always thought she would pull through, that was our last hope. We had hoped up until the last minute. We thought it would be a long road to recovery but we thought she was going to make it."
Jamie Barrow was remanded in custody on Friday at Nottingham Magistrates' Court charged with their murders. Barrow, 31, who spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth, was ordered to appear at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday.
Adjourning the case, District Judge Leo Pyle told Barrow: "All three allegations you face have to be heard at the Crown Court and accordingly I am sending all three of these matters to the Nottingham Crown Court."
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