Oatlands crash: How the Abdallahs pushed through a year of unimaginable loss

Few have had it as rough as this Sydney family. And there’s a heartbreaking reason why Christmas is even more difficult.

This year is one that has taken a heavy toll on many of us.

With everything that has happened, even the most privileged of us have had our worlds turned upside down by 2020.

But there are few families in Australia that have had it as rough as the Abdallahs in Western Sydney — who will have a painful reminder of their unimaginable loss this Christmas.

When they gather around for their Christmas lunch this year, they will be missing three of their young children Antony, Angelina and Sienna.

To add to the family’s pain, Christmas Eve would have been Angelina’s 13th birthday.

Their lives were snatched alongside their cousin Veronique Sakr’s in the most unimaginable tragedies of the year back on February 1.

Antony Abdallah was just 13 years old when he was killed in February.

Angelina was 12, and would have been 13 on Christmas Eve.

Sienna, 8, was the youngest victim of the crash.

They had asked their father Danny on that oppressive summer evening in western Sydney if they could take a walk down the road to pick up some ice cream with four other children, all from the same extended family.

He thought about it and decided that since they were in a big group and they promised to be back before sunset he would let them go.

Before he did, however, he told them very clearly to stick together and stay on the footpath.

The group of seven young children set off around the corner from the family home and walked down Bettington Rd which runs alongside the Oatlands Golf Club.

Four of them would never make it home.

Their lives were cruelly cut short when 30-year-old drunk driver Samuel William Davidson’s ute mounted a kerb while he was driving at more than double the speed limit.

Davidson was high on drugs and three times the blood alcohol limit when he jumped behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi 4WD that night to pick up some cash from a nearby servo ATM.

Samuel Davidson, left, has pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter.

A fifth child was left in a critical condition from the crash and spent 80 days in hospital but survived, while two others were also injured.

Davidson will spend his Christmas behind bars. He is awaiting his sentence after pleading guilty to nine charges including four counts of manslaughter.

But while he waits, the Abdallah family are left with three gaping holes in their lives.

Adding to their grief more than ten months after the tragedy, Christmas Eve would have been Angelina’s 13th birthday.

“That’s why we named her Angelina, which means ‘little angel’,” mother Leila Abdallah told parents at a charity event earlier this month.

“Christmas is a very hard moment for us … We’re just trying to be ourselves and focus on our healing of mind, body and soul.”

Mrs Abdallah became a powerful symbol of forgiveness shortly after the crash.

Leila Abdallah and her husband Danny were praised for their forgiveness following the crash. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“The guy, I know he was drunk, driving on this street. Right now I can’t hate him. I don’t want to see him, (but) I don’t hate him,” she told reporters.

“I think in my heart, I forgive him, but I want the court to be fair. It’s all about fairness. I’m not going to hate him, because that’s not who we are.”

At the funeral for the three siblings — which was attended by thousands — priest Monsignor Shora Maree said Leila had “shocked the world” with her words of forgiveness.

Instead of letting anger consume her, she began attending church daily, exercised six days a week and surrounded herself with positive people to help her cope with the loss.

Her husband Danny said even though Christmas would be hard he was determined to make it special to bring “joy” to his three other children.

“We’re trying to have our Christmas as it was last year so they can at least feel that joy,” the father-of-six said.

“Even if we don’t feel that joy because we miss them (Antony, Angelina and Sienna), we’re trying to do it for our kids.”

He said his kids were in the “best possible place” after losing their siblings.

“My heart is broken. I have no motivation,” Mr Abdallah said.

“It’s painful but I can’t let them (my wife and other children) down … They’ve given me that purpose to wake up every morning.

“You need to build a trusted team around you to get through grief because it’s something you can’t do on your own.”