Last Sunday, smiling at the camera, showing off freshly applied face paint and cuddling a baby goat, 10-year-old Matilda was the picture of happiness. And yet minutes later she was fighting for her life.
Inseparable from her younger sister Summer, the girls had been enjoying the Hanukkah party with their parents.
Her funeral on Thursday will be another difficult day for Sydney’s Jewish community as they bury the youngest victim of the Bondi massacre.
Her traumatised parents have visited the makeshift memorial just metres from where Matilda was shot.
Through tears her father, Michael, told journalists: “I named her Matilda because she was our first Australian, we came here from Ukraine and Matilda was the first born in Australia and I thought that ‘Matilda’ is the most Australian name that can ever exist so just remember the name, remember her.”
I meet Matilda’s aunt Lina Chernykh who describes her niece as “friendly and happy, and with a lot of friends”.
After first hearing the news about the massacre Lina prayed Matilda would not die, even if it meant life-changing injuries.
She broke down in tears telling me how she would have pushed Matilda round in a wheelchair if it had meant she survived.
I ask her what she thinks about the gunmen who went on the rampage.
“I feel sorry for them,” she says. “They must never have had love – how can someone happy in love do this? They are evil.”
Read more:
Alleged Bondi Beach attacker charged with 59 offences
Mourners pay respects at funeral of Bondi victim
Only a few weeks ago Matilda was practising her dance moves at her grandad’s birthday party.
Now her family are carrying out her funeral.
Inundated with messages of support from strangers around the world – they want Matilda’s love of life to be passed on.
Lina tells me quietly that she hopes people will remember Matilda as the smiling youngster she was, rather than the child who was killed. “Remember her just as a happy child, a happy person… I hope people around the world give love to their kids and not hate.”
