SIX YEAR OLD Summer remembers the woman who saved her life on the day of the Bondi Beach terror attack quite clearly.
“I remember how she looks but I don’t know her age. She didn’t have a dress on I don’t think, but I think she was taking care of the animals, she had kind of a farm outfit, she was holding a big rabbit. I could pat the rabbit at the farm,” the little girl bravely recounts to Woman’s Day with her mum Valentyna by her side. “She had ginger coloured hair.”
“I can’t believe she just said that, before she could remember nothing about her,” says her mum, her voice shaking with a mix of pride and grief.
Having endured the unimaginable loss of her 10-year-old daughter, her bright and brilliant Matilda Bee – the youngest of the 15 victims killed senselessly by two gunman – the grieving mum is now desperately trying to locate the woman who bravely saved her youngest daughter’s life during the horrific attack on Sunday, 14 December.
Summer, who heartbreakingly lost her big sister on that fateful day, has a message for the hero woman: “Thank you for helping me hide and making sure I didn’t run away.”
Valentyna is asking people to email Woman’s Day at womansday@aremedia.com.au if they have information they can share about the identity of the mystery heroine.
She wants to reunite with the woman to tell her that while her heart is broken for Matilda, if she had lost Summer too, she would barely be surviving.
The scant details she has gleaned from a friend who witnessed the woman, is that she was young and was also attending the Chanukah By the Sea festival..
“When the attack started, she was holding Summer and grabbed her and hid her behind the vehicle that was next to the petting zoo. She held Summer during the attack.
“That’s the only information that I have about her, but I would love to see her and say thank you. And at least know who the person was who saved Summer,” grief-stricken Valentyna says.
Reliving the horrors of that day, Valentyna recalls the panic she felt when she couldn’t find her daughters.
“I was with [my husband] Michael when the shooting started. Firstly I thought it was firecrackers and said to Michael ‘what a bad joke’, but Michael looked to the side and said, ‘it’s shooting’.
”I immediately ran to the 9D movie van where I believed the girls were,” says Matilda’s mum, her voice trembling with emotion as she remembers the feeling of horror during her desperate search and the rising fear which engulfed her.
“Summer was sitting behind a car with a lady who was holding her, but I didn’t see her, I was hiding behind the van. I could hear the man who was walking and shouting. He was getting closer, at some point I thought if he goes further he will see us and we’ll need to run in the open and crawl under the van,” she says of the horrifying ordeal.
“After the shooting stopped I went to the van entrance and asked the person who worked there if people are inside. He answered ‘yes two families’. He checked if Matilda and Summer were there too but they were not,” says Valentyna.
“Then I could see our friend holding his little son and hiding in a car park, I rushed to him asking if he saw our girls, but he told me he hadn’t seen them. So I ran on towards Bondi Pavilion looking for them between cars and calling their names.
“When I was close to the place where I left Michael, I called him on the phone. He answered and said, ‘come here, she is still alive’. When I saw Matilda she recognised me,” she says her voice choked with emotion.
“There were other people around her who came from the beach, a doctor and a nurse, they were helping her,” Valentyna remembers.
“Summer was there too, with Michael. I took Summer away – I didn’t want her to see her sister die,” she says tearfully.
Valentyna took her youngest daughter to friends, who took care of her while she went back to be with Matilda, who had tragically been shot in the stomach.
“I returned to Matilda and was with her all the way to the hospital and operation room. Michael found Summer, and brought her to the hospital, but Summer was not allowed to stay at the hospital so Michael stayed and friends took Summer to her grandparents.”
The weeks since Matilda’s death have been very hard and filled with unimaginable sadness, says Valentyna.
Immigrants from Ukraine, she came to Australia alongside her husband Michael to start a new life in “the lucky country” Australia before the war with Russia. The couple choose to name their little girl Matilda, after the song Waltzing Matilda and because it was the most Australian name they could think of.
Remembered as “a little ray of sunshine” who always brought joy to those around her, Matilda loved being a big sister and was rarely far from Summer’s side, with their aunt previously revealing the girls were inseparable and “like twins”. They even share the same middle name, Bee.
“We have been a couple of times to Grace’s Place, it is a children’s service for grief and loss, it is a really good place and Summer is getting support from them, and family and friends, of course.
“She misses Matilda very much, they were very, very close. They shared a bedroom, for a long time they slept together in one king-sized bed side by side. So it’s very hard for her.”
It’s a loss almost too hard to articulate, but Valentyna says heartbreakingly: “I miss Matilda badly… when it gets too hard I hug her photograph and kiss and comfort it as if it was her… I ask her for forgiveness because we couldn’t save her… I say that we loved her, love her and will always love her.
“I asked Michael to laminate that photo because my tears will ruin it.”
As she holds her surviving daughter Summer tightly, she has one final message for the woman who saved her life: “Thank you for what you’ve done for us, we are very grateful and we don’t know how to say thank you, but we will try to because whatever we do for her, it won’t be enough.”
To donate to Matilda’s Go Fund me, please click here.
