Thalia Hakin: Young Bourke St victim farewelled at emotional funeral service

THALIA Hakin, the 10-year-old victim of the Melbourne car rampage, has been farewelled at an emotional funeral.

THE seriously injured mother of Thalia Hakin, the 10-year-old victim of the Bourke St massacre, has only just learned her daughter is dead.

Much of the preparation for Thalia’s funeral was done “behind her back” because she was so unwell, mourners at Thalia’s Melbourne school, the Beth Rivkah Ladies College, were told this afternoon.

Thalia’s mother Nathalie is still in a critical condition from the injuries she suffered in the car rampage through Bourke Street Mall last Friday.

It was only at 3am today Nathalie was finally aware her daughter had died.

“Up to this morning she was not aware … So much of the planning had to be done behind her back,” husband and father Tony Hakin said.

But this morning she was able to form some words.

“Nat woke up and said, ‘I know what happened. Some maniac got my family and I don’t know how to deal with it’.”

The tragedy robbed her of “my little angel”, she said.

She wanted mourners to know she had been her “little butterfly, the light of my life”.

Thalia Hakin.

Thalia Hakin’s sister Maggie was at the service in a wheelchair. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Mourners at a memorial service for Thalia Hakin outside her school Beth Rivkah Ladies College. Picture: Nicole Garmston

More than 600 members of Melbourne’s Jewish community gathered at the school.

Thalia’s sister Maggie, 9, sat at the front of the service in a wheelchair with her left leg elevated after suffering serious injuries during the rampage.

Many people have spoken about the special bond that existed between the sisters and how Thalia doted on her. Mr Hakin said he was unsure how she was coping.

“She’s been very brave; her sister will be proud of her.”

Mr Hakin has been running between the hospitals where Maggie was being treated and where his wife was fighting for life.

He revealed to mourners it was Maggie who called him and told him what had happened in a desperate phone call.

“She said ‘some idiot has run over my leg and it’s broken’, and just run over my toe … I said ‘Maggie, where’s your Mum? and she said ‘Mum is on the ground and people are looking after her’.”

Shocked, he asked where Thalia was. Maggie didn’t respond and he feared the worst.

“I got this sickly feeling you get when something is wrong.”

He raced to the scene and was eventually let through the cordons by police. It was then he realised it was much worse than just a “hit and run”.

“I was frantically looking for my family … My wife was lying on the ground being looked after by paramedics and Maggie was sitting up being helped by people — not just paramedics but average Joe Blows.”

Thalia Hakin with her younger sister Maggie.

Thalia Hakin’s mother called her ‘my angel’.

Mr Hakin said Maggie started telling him what happened and said she called him because her mother wasn’t able to speak.

“The bravery — I couldn’t have done that as a nine-year-old,” he said.

Mr Hakin asked Maggie where her sister was.

It was then emergency workers pointed to a blanket on the ground with “blood coming from it”.

“They said, ‘There’s a 10 year-old over there, she may be yours. Do you know what she was wearing?’”

In shock, he couldn’t even think what clothes Thalia had on that day.

He searched his phone for a picture of Thalia but he “couldn’t think straight”.

Maggie escaped much worse injuries or death because she was standing behind her sister and mother and “saw the car coming” and was able to “double back”.

“Thalia copped the full brunt of it, I think she died instantly. I don’t think she would have known much about it. She had brain haemorrhages,” he said.

Thalia Hakin gave her parents ‘joy’ since the moment she was born.

He told the funeral his “beautiful baby girl” was full of love and was the antithesis of the “pure hatred” she encountered that day.

“Thalia’s passing was only a result of something that was pure evil, because that’s the only thing that could take her.”

Life would never be the same again.

“My family has two legs. A right leg and a left leg. The left leg is Maggie and the right leg is Thalia. I’m now hobbling along on one leg,” he said.

He would always be proud of his “little butterfly” with the “piercing blue eyes”.

“I don’t think I could’ve been more proud of a little girl — from the day she was born until the day she died, that girl gave me joy.”

The rabbi conducting the service was reduced to tears within seconds of beginning as he described how Thalia was “suddenly and tragically taken away from our midst”.

Mourners at the funeral of Thalia Hakin. Picture: Nicole Garmston

“She was a child of light, pure in spirit, truly spontaneous and true,” another rabbi said.

One speaker told of her being known as a “sweet little girl” who always had a “twinkle in her eye”.

A devastated teacher at Beth Rivkah Ladies College told how she formed a bond with Thalia over their mutual messy desks and love of shoes and accessories.

Thalia was never backward about voicing her opinion on what she was wearing and would comment “strongly on my outfit”.

She described her as “sparky, vibrant, vivacious and colourful” student who had to be dragged away from the artroom.

Her death would leave a massive “void” in everyone’s life.

“A little piece of my heart is gone.”

The private service followed a procession that visited Thalia’s school, Beth Rivkah Ladies College, where 1000 students and members of the school community gathered to celebrate the much loved little girl.

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