In the weeks since her 10-year-old daughter Matilda was tragically killed in the Bondi terror attack, one thing has got Valentyna through.
Her younger daughter Summer was saved by someone the family didn’t know. After Woman’s Day ran a story on Valentyna’s behalf, asking for help finding the woman who saved her six-year-old, petting zoo worker Natasha came forward.
In our exclusive interview and shoot, Natasha, who was working at the petting zoo at the Chanukah by the Sea event, was reunited with Valentyna, husband Michael, and Summer.
“I want to say that you are a hero,” Valentyna tells Natasha at the shoot. “You are a hero for Australia and for me personally, you are the best hero in the world. We have quite a few heroes at the moment, but you are the best,” she adds with a brave smile.
Tearful reunion
On the day of the meeting, the rain stopped, and a beautiful rainbow broke through the grey gums as we gathered for our photo session, causing us to pause and look skyward.
Believed to be a symbol of hope, guidance and connection, it seemed fitting. “I cried, there were lots and lots of hugs,” Valentyna, Matilda and Summer’s mother, says of their reunion at last Sunday’s vigil at Bondi Beach, which marked the end of 30 days of mourning in Jewish tradition.
Smiling gently across at Natasha as Woman’s Day reunites them at her mum’s home in Mulgoa, Penrith, Valentyna remembers the moment her husband Michael recognised Tash.
“It was a big surprise for me, but it was a happy surprise. I couldn’t believe she was there,” Valentyna remembers with a smile on her face.
Little Summer, who with her cheeky smile and twinkling brown eyes is the mirror image of her big sister, immediately recognised her secret saviour.
“She ran up to her, hugged her, and said, ‘Thank you for saving my life,’” says Valentyna, with tears in her eyes and her voice shaking with emotion.
Valentyna, with the help of Woman’s Day, had been searching for the unsung hero who saved Summer’s life on the night of December 14 when her other daughter Matilda, 10, was tragically and fatally shot, making her the youngest victim of the terror attack.
The search for their daughter’s hero
After reading our online article, Tash’s stepfather Dave realised his stepdaughter was the “hero woman” at the centre of the search and Tash and her mum Ally, who runs the petting zoo, headed to Bondi to surprise the family.
“I had no idea that it was Summer I’d saved until my stepdad called Mum and showed me the article and then it clicked,” says Tash, 20, who was working at the petting zoo alongside her mum Ally and Dave during the Chanukah by the Sea event.
When the first shots were fired, Tash grabbed Summer and hid with her in her family’s white van, sitting the little girl on her lap and protecting her as the gunmen unleashed bullets across the sky.
“[I] didn’t even know Summer’s name, I just told her, ‘Crouch down and hold my hands’. I asked her to look at me the whole time, ‘Don’t look anywhere else and just pretend it’s fireworks,’” she says of how she kept six-year-old Summer calm during those terrifying moments.
A photo of Matilda petting Rusty the goat has been shared since her death and Tash’s mum recalls meeting the schoolgirl.
“She just had a captivating smile, and I felt drawn to her,” remembers Ally. “I have a niece called Matilda so I asked her if she ever gets called Tilly and she said, ‘No’. Before the shooting took place it was the happiest event, the Jewish people were so welcoming and lovely,” says Ally, who also saved a little girl, shielding her with her body during the shooting.
Tragically it was one of the last conversations Matilda ever had.
And while Tash was holding tightly onto her little sister Summer in the white van, Matilda had become separated from her family and was fatally shot.
Fears for her missing daughters
Frantically searching for her little girls, Valentyna remembers the moment she called out to her husband. “He told me, ‘Come here, she is still alive’. When I saw Matilda, she recognised me,” she says, her voice choked with emotion.
Valentyna was in the hospital with Matilda while she was operated on, but doctors tragically couldn’t save her beautiful little girl.
The weeks since her loss have been filled with unimaginable pain but the one moment of light has been reconnecting with Tash. A national day of mourning for the victims of the Bondi terror attack will be held this week, and Valentyna has written to her local mayor asking for Tash to be honoured on Australia Day.
When asked if she sees herself as a hero, Tash is typically modest, “She was there, she was a kid, I just did what anyone would do. I don’t think of myself as a hero. I saw a child that needed saving and I saved her.”
For Valentyna, of course, the fact that she saved Summer means everything. “What Tash did was just amazing because she not only shielded Summer to keep her physically safe but she was also thinking about her mind and mental state at that point and that is just amazing. A million times thank you.”
Feeling grief and loss
Sitting side-by-side with her mum and Tash, Summer hugs the picture frame of Matilda which is decorated with bees – a nod to the girls’ shared middle name, Bee.
“She is missing Matilda, but seeing Tash has been really good for her. It has made her so happy,” the grieving mum says.
“We have been a couple of times to Grace’s Place, it is a children’s service for grief and loss. It is a 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 and 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, 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 for plans to see Tash again, one date is firmly in the diary. The family will celebrate Summer’s upcoming seventh birthday together in February.
In a nod to Matilda’s last hours, Valentyna wants to have the petting zoo – and in particular Rusty the goat, who Matilda was pictured with – there to celebrate, too.
Tash will happily be the guest of honour, saying of her unbreakable bond with Summer, “She’s like a little sister to me.”
BEES FOR MATILDA
Standing and hugging each other under the awning of the house, Valentyna takes a moment to sweetly gift Tash with a beautiful gold necklace of a bee.
In the days following the attack, images of bees popped up in storefronts, and mourners at Matilda’s funeral were handed stickers bearing Matilda’s name in purple – her favourite colour – and with a bee motif below it, after Matilda’s dad Michael asked a grieving nation to remember his sweet daughter by sharing bee images online.
Now it has become a poignant symbol of love, innocence and resilience – a way to remember our own “Waltzing Matilda”, a nod to her Ukrainian parents’ decision to give her the most Australian name they could think of. Tash will wear the necklace close to her heart, as a reminder of her own courage and of the girl she saved and the sister she lost.
Bonded together by the tragic events of that December day, Valentyna adds, “We will stay in touch forever.
“We’re family now.”
To donate to Matilda’s GoFundMe page, click here.
To donate to Tash’s GoFundMe page, click here.
