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| NEWS | BY RICHARD OSLEY |
 Ursula’s army: (from left) Friend and neighbour Pam McInally, brother Oscar Bahler, friend Erdal Kemal and step daughter Gami Oladeinde-Lawal outside Ursula’s former house and a shrine of flowers left by well wishers. Inset, Mrs Bahler  Happier times: Ursula and her husband in the garden of their Sumatra Road home |
Friends of the 63-year-old, better known by the nickname Ushi, are locked in negotiations with the Swiss Embassy and coroner’s officers with the aim of ensuring they get the chance to pay their final respects. Relatives had planned to fly the body back to Switzerland for a cremation but friends who tried to help Mrs Bahler during her three-year struggle are insisting that she should be given a full service. And in a new development, campaigners have been joined by the dead woman’s eldest step-daughter, Gami Oladeinde-Lawal, who is still in dispute with her sisters over the controversial sale of the family home in Sumatra Road which effectively made Mrs Bahler homeless. She said: “I am still very angry. I live in Nigeria and as soon as I heard I flew to London. I have not spoken to my sisters. Ursula was the kindest person in the world. I will do all I can to help.” Friends are organising accommodation for Mrs Bahler’s relatives, including her brother Oscar, who flew into London from Canada yesterday (Wednesday), while preparations for a service in London continue. It is hoped they can convince Mrs Bahler’s surviving relatives to allow their plans for a community service to go ahead at St James’s Church in West Hampstead on Saturday March 13. A street service for friends will be held in Sumatra Road the evening before. A friend of the dead woman, Erdal Kemal, said: “As soon as Ursula’s family realise how many people cared for her I am sure they will realise they cannot just take her away. “There are so many people who knew Ursula and want to help. She was a special woman. Even in death she has more life in her than some people do when they are alive.” The service will be funded by contributions from an army of supporters, many of whom read about Mrs Bahler’s plight in the New Journal in November 2000 and again last week when the mystery of her death was unravelled. Several tried desperately to help her but could not persuade her to take up offers of accommodation. At one stage, Mrs Bahler even demanded an audience with Harrods chief Mohammed Al Fayed in a plea for help. A book of condolences has been started and tributes have begun flooding in from supporters across north London. Several have funded a new dress for Mrs Bahler to wear in her coffin. It emerged on Monday that friends of the woman, also known as The Angel Of West Hampstead, were in negotiation with property owners Relay Management to repair the basement of the disputed flat, which is thought to have been badly flooded by heavy rain two years ago. Work was due to begin next month to make the flat habitable and it was hoped Mrs Bahler would agree to rent the basement at a reduced fee. But she had shunned previous offers, insisting that the flat was rightfully hers and that she had been denied her share of the profits the sale generated. Mr Kemal, a maths teacher, said: “She had been in despair in recent weeks. Mentally she was very down about the house. I was worried about her, she needed help. “It was obvious she could not continue sleeping outside. “We were talking to Relay but I honestly can’t say whether she would have moved in because she felt so strongly about what had happened to her. Relay were the innocent party.” The row began in 2000, 17 years after the death of Alex Oladeine, Mrs Bahler’s husband, during a dispute over his will and whether a handwritten note was legally executable. A shock house sale led to Mrs Bahler’s eviction and, despite a legal challenge, she remained homeless until her death on February 20. Usually she slept in the doorway of the building that had been her treasured home for 37 years. A series of developers have owned the property over the years but none have successfully converted it into marketable flats and it is in need of refurbishment. Police discovered Mrs Bahler’s body in a basement flat close to the disputed property. A pathologist concluded that she had died from hypothermia, possibly explaining eye-witness accounts that her face was blue when found. An inquest was opened and adjourned at St Pancras Coroner’s Court on Thursday morning. The New Journal reported last week that a man was arrested on suspicion of Mrs Bahler’s murder but released without charge. He has since been ‘sectioned’ under the Mental Health Act for unrelated reasons but friends of the man said he was a “long-standing friend” of the homeless widow and suspicion had only been aroused when he “clammed up” under questioning by detectives at the scene. David Peters, who knew Ms Bahler and the 60-year-old man who was sectioned, said: “Her friend was an eccentric Buddhist. “His flat reflects this. People unaware of his interests usually find his rooms very bizarre. Ushi had her own belief system. Her friendship with this man was based on mutual tolerance.” Mr Peters added that the man, who suffered from a form of manic depression, had been known to spend weeks without speaking. Detectives said the death was “non-suspicious”. Their evidence will be heard at the inquest, expected to resume within the next six months. |
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