In the chaos of gunfire at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, two parents, Wayne and Jessica, were plunged into the same nightmare: they could not find their three-year-old children.
For ten agonizing minutes, as people screamed and ran during the Hanukkah celebration, their worlds narrowed to a desperate search.
Wayne, using his body as a shield for his eldest daughter, was tormented by thoughts of his missing little girl, Gigi. “We had to wait all that time for the gunshots to stop. It felt like eternity,” he told the BBC. “I was looking amongst the blood and the bodies… What I saw – no human should ever see that.”
Unbeknownst to him, Jessica—herself pregnant and separated from her son—had spotted a terrified little girl in a rainbow skirt, crying out for her parents.
In an instant, she made a decision: she could not protect her own child, so she would protect this one. She covered Gigi with her own body, whispering “I’ve got you,” over and over, as they felt the impact of a bullet striking a woman just a meter away.
When the shooting finally stopped, Wayne, fearing the worst, caught a glimpse of a familiar colourful skirt. He found his daughter, stained with red but unharmed, still sheltered by Jessica. Her own son was soon found safe.
“She said she’s just a mother and she acted with mother instincts,” Wayne said. “[But] she’s a superhero. We’ll be indebted to her for the rest of our lives.”
This profound act of courage is one of many that emerged from Australia’s deadliest terror attack, which left 15 people dead, including a 10-year-old girl, and dozens injured.
Police say the two gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group. Alongside stories like Jessica’s, lifeguards raced into danger to render aid, and reports tell of a couple who died fighting the attackers, adding to the tapestry of raw human bravery on one of the nation’s darkest days.
By James Kisoo
