The family of four children killed in a horror drink driving crash have urged forgiveness as they remembered their lost loved ones in a moving ceremony.
Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, and Sienna Abdallah, 9, and Veronique Sakr, 11, were killed when they were mowed down by a drunk and drugged driver at Oatlands in western Sydney in February 2020.
The three Abdallah siblings and their cousin were walking to get ice cream when Samuel William Davidson’s ute mounted the footpath and killed the four youngsters.
Davidson – who was last year sentenced to 28 years in jail – had spent the day drinking and snorting drugs before he jumped behind the wheel and drove up to 130km/h in a 50km/h zone.
I Forgive Day was created by Danny and Leila Abdallah, the devastated parents of three of the four children killed.
On Sunday, they gathered with the community at The King’s School Chapel in Parramatta to speak about having forgiven the driver and asked people to reconcile with their families.
Following the ceremony, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said politicians needed to be more understanding of people and human frailty.
“We’re all suffering from the same human condition and finding the way forward and a huge part of that is to forgive,” Mr Morrison said.
Mr Abdallah, who is expecting his seventh child in March, said the national forgiveness day had grown in the past 12 months to include prison programs, helping inmates reconcile with their families.
“Forgiveness is the greatest gift you can give yourself and others,” the couple wrote.
“The more you practice the better you become at it and it allows you to live peacefully and to heal. Forgiveness is more for the forgiver than the forgiven.”
Mr Abdallah described his late children as his “best mate”, “little helper” and “little princess”.
“While you were destroying your life with drugs and alcohol, I was busy building a life for my children,” Mr Abdallah told the District Court during Davidson’s sentencing proceedings last year.
“You ran my children over like a lawnmower would cut grass.”
