Matilda B

Hi all

I really didn't know what to post this week. I started to write something else, but ignoring the elephant in Sydney's room just seemed disrespectful and careless.

If you don't live in Australia, you may not have heard about the terrible events at Bondi Beach on Sunday, although I think the shock has filtered through the news worldwide. Essentially, two horrendous, hate filled humans opened fire with long guns on a Hanukkah event at one of Sydney's most famous landmarks, killing 15 innocent, ordinary people - including a 10 year old girl, Matilda - and wounding 42.

This simply does not happen in Australia. I have never once in my entire life let my boys go from my sight to school, or a concert or the shops, worrying that someone will try to harm them. Our last mass shooting was nearly 30 years ago. We don't have school or university shootings, gun related crimes still make the news as they aren't an everyday occurrence, and this is our first real major terrorism event. Ever. And make no mistake, it was terrorism. These men targeted the event because it was a Jewish festival, and it was very clearly planned out and precisely organised to kill Jewish victims.

To say we are reeling is an understatement. This happened ten minutes from my dad's house. My Jewish friends know people who were wounded. A school friend of mine was Matilda's violin teacher. Everyone I know is heartbroken and torn apart, at the thought of this happening in our beautiful country, in my beautiful city, at one of our beautiful beaches. To fellow Australians, children and grandparents and sons and daughters and mothers and fathers.

As always when something like this happens, so many Australians stepped into the danger to try to stop the carnage, and some paid with their lives. A couple walking by, Boris and Sofia, saw the father of the pair before the shooting started, getting the gun out of his car, which had an Isis flag draped over the bonnet. They confronted him, and he shot them both dead. Another man, Reuven, threw bricks at the terrorist son while he was shooting, and was killed. Another man named Ahmed, tackled the son from behind and took away his gun - but the son rearmed himself, and Ahmed was shot himself and is in hospital. Women threw themselves over other people's children to save them, police ran into the gunfire and took the men down, lifeguards from the beach ran from every direction to help the wounded. Australians are wonderful in a crisis. But how appalling that they had to be.

I'm really broken down and heartsore peeps. I had a dash of the end of year tiredness like we all do, but this has just sent me to the end, I'm dripping tears and all I want to do is hold my boys close when they arrive for Christmas this weekend. I need all my birds in the nest, so that I can look at them together and thank every force in the world that they are here safe with me.

Matilda's funeral is today. Her parents named her Matilda, because they are immigrants and Matilda was born here - so she is the family's first Australian, and they couldn't think of a better or more Australian name. Her middle name starts with B - and so she has always been Matilda B.

Her family have asked that people draw or make pictures of bees, and share them on social media in her memory. I have shared this online, but I wanted to share it with you too - the little embroidered bee quilt from my Little Quilts book. It seemed perfect to me. Please take a moment to think of a little girl at a celebration with her family, and send a thought or a prayer into the world for her today. May her memory be a blessing.

There won't be a StitchyMites post next week. I was planning one, but Wednesday is Christmas Eve and I'm going to just sit and be in the moment with my family. I will post on January 31 with the roundup of the books I read this year as promised. I hope you all have a safe and Happy Christmas if you're celebrating it, and that everyone you love is safe and happy too.

This awful, terrible, unforgivable thing, and other awful terrible, awful, unforgivable things, happen when people have hatred in their minds, and prejudice and intolerance for their fellow man. Go forward with love for others in your hearts today peeps.

Sarah x