Family ‘running out of tears’ as community gathers in condolence
A cousin of the Abdallah family has described “running out of tears” for the tragic loss of the family’s three children and relative Veronica Sakr at a condolence gathering held in Harris Park on Friday night.
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A cousin of the Abdallah family has described “running out of tears” for the tragic loss of the family’s three children and relative Veronica Sakr outside a condolences gathering held in Harris Park on Friday night.
Hundreds of mourners queued for hours outside Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral’s church hall despite in the wet weather to pay their respects to both the Abdallah and Sakr families from 6pm.
David Mannah is the first cousin of Danny Abdallah, whose children Antony, Angelina and Sienna were tragically killed, alongside relative Veronica Sakr, by an alleged drunk-driver crash in Oatlands last Saturday.
Mr Mannah grew up on the same street as his cousin who he is “as close as a brother to” and said that the family’s grief was a “just heartbreaking”.
“There’s no real solution to the tragedy and emotions our family going through,” Mr Mannah said.
“It’s such a loss, it hasn’t been easy and (it’s) a rollercoaster of emotions. We’ve run out of tears but they just keep coming. I’ve never heard of a family losing three children in this manner.”
Mr Mannah spoke of the Abdallah family’s “rawest of raw emotions” that he witnessed first-hand and said that the grief of the loss “hits every morning”.
“All of those emotions just hit you every morning. Danny and Leila wake up without their three children — they are obsessed with their children.
“I’m with them in those intimate moments behind closed doors. It’s heartbreaking, so heartbreaking, to see Leila curling in a ball and crying out to God saying ‘Why do I deserve this?’” he said.
“But then you see her strength, see her rise up and see her just say “God, if this is the cross you want me to carry, I’ll do it’ and Danny, doing the same.
“It’s hard seeing them like this as I’m so close to the family and I was so close to those kids, our families are such a tight-knit unit.”
Mourners embraced and shared tears and prayers as they waited for an audience with the grieving family members.
Mr Mannah said the Abdallah and Sakr families “took comfort” in their faith and in the continued strength of the support shown to them by the Lebanese community at the condolence proceedings.
“As part of the Lebanese community it’s part of our tradition to get the broader community together to show and pay respects to tragedy that’s occurred within our family.
“When going through such a sorrowful dark time in life, you need support, love and prayer,” he said.
Children in the uniforms of The King’s School and Tara Anglican School for Girls, which the Abdallah children attended, were among the mourners who stretched out the door of the chapel hall and beyond the cathedral grounds.
A grandmother of the children emerged from the chapel inconsolable at the loss, and was escorted away by caring relatives.
Mr Mannah said she had been crying out in Arabic that “the family should be burying her instead of the children,” who he remembered as “so precious”.
“I could go on about each one of them, how beautiful they were,” he said.
“They were all about feeding the homeless. It was something they were passionate about. Sienna (Abdallah), for her birthday her mother asked what she wanted to do, and she said ‘Mum I want to go and feed the homeless tonight”. She gave her own birthday cake to a mother and daughter who were homeless.”
Mr Mannah also said that the actions of alleged drunk driver Samuel Johnson which led to the tragic crash on the footpath of Bettington Road were “extremely reckless and extremely irresponsible”.
“I think one thing that needs to be rectified at some point is the way we adopt alcohol in our culture,” he said.
“The way it’s celebrated, the way it’s promoted, the way it’s an everyday part of our culture in Australia, and then the easy access we have to driving and to be under the influence needs to be addressed somehow and some way. If this tragedy doesn’t help us take a step in the right direction, I honestly don’t know what will.”
The condolences ran until just after 9pm and will continue tomorrow evening.
OUR ENTIRE WORLD CAME CRUMBLING DOWN
Earlier today, the Abdallahs described how their “entire world came crumbling down with the senseless loss”.
Abdallah siblings Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, Sienna, 8, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, died on Bettington Rd in Oatlands on Saturday night about 7.50pm.
A third child who was injured in the crash, a 10-year-old boy, remains in a critical condition in hospital.
Danny and Leila Abdallah released an emotional statement on Friday describing their grief.
“To begin to encapsulate or express the heart wrenching pain and sorrow we are experiencing in this time would require endless words of despair,” the statement said.
“This is an unimaginable tragedy; unfathomable beyond all description.”
Mr and Mrs Abdallah said their children were their reason for living.
“What is life without your children? How and where do we begin to pick up the pieces so that we may be effective parents to our three remaining angels?” the statement asked.
The parents said they forgive the driver responsible for killing their children.
“His actions will be met before the earthly and heavenly judge,” the statement said.
“We have decided, in our hearts to forgive him — for our sake, for the sake of our children and more so for Christ’s sake.”
The parents continue to look to their Maronite faith for strength at this time.
“Our faith in Jesus Christ remains the foundation of our family and we believe it will continue to help us through this difficult time,” the statement said.
“Each day that passes is a day closer to the day we are reunited with our angels. We will look toward this moment; not backwards at yesterday’s pain.”
The pair thanked everyone for the support they had received.
“We would like to thank our family, our friends, our community, and so many others from across Australia and the world,” the statement said.
“We are humbled and strengthened by the outpouring of love from each and every one of you.
“Please continue to join us in prayer during this time. This is a very heavy cross that we’ve been chosen to carry, but it is through God’s love that we keep going.”
A family spokesman said community condolences would be held tonight and Saturday with the funeral on Monday.
Police will allege Samuel Davidson, 29, was three times over the legal blood alcohol limit when his Mitsubishi ute mounted a kerb and struck the children.