Bondi Attack: Parents of Victim Matilda Thank Mystery Woman Who Saved Younger Daughter

By Victoria Pengilley, ABC News Valentyna Poltavchenko remembers the surge of panic when she realised she couldn't see her two young daughters as gunshots rang out at Bondi Beach. Moments earlier, she had watched Matilda, 10, and her 6-year-old sister Summer walk hand in hand towards the petting zoo at the Chanukah by the Sea celebration on 14 December. The sisters were inseparable and had spent the afternoon having their faces painted, playing with bubbles and eating sweet treats. As the sun dipped towards the horizon and families gathered for the lighting of the Chanukah candle, the girls told their parents they wanted to wander a short distance away to pat the animals. Then the first shots were fired. "I thought it was firecrackers," Poltavchenko recalled. "I told Michael, 'What a bad joke, someone wants to scare us'. "At that point Michael said: 'It's not a joke. It's actually a shooting.'" In the confusion that followed, Poltavchenko searched the crowd but the girls were nowhere to be seen. Poltavchenko's husband, Michael Britvan, found Matilda first. She was lying injured in her yellow sundress. "I was trying to stay low because I could hear the bullets were just flying," Britvan said. "I could hear her screaming and I screamed something like, 'Matilda, get down', and I started to crawl to where she was. When I got there, she was already hurt. "I was trying to calm her down, I was like: 'Please Matilda, just hold on, hold on.'" Within minutes, an off-duty doctor and a paramedic, both in swimmers and fresh from the ocean, rushed to help. As emergency crews worked on Matilda, Britvan continued searching desperately for Summer. He eventually found the 6-year-old unharmed, in the arms of a woman with bright red hair who was sheltering behind a ute. "I just said, 'Thank you,'" he recalled. "I said: 'I'm sorry, her sister is injured we have to go.'" In the hours that followed, both parents clung to the hope that their eldest daughter would survive. "We were still full of hope that she will manage, she will make it. Then the doctors came out and asked us to sit down with them," Britvan said. 'A regular Aussie girl' A month after the Bondi terror attack, the heartbroken parents of the youngest victim have given their first sit-down interview. They described Matilda as a "softie" who loved animals, practised judo and rarely wanted to be apart from her little sister. She had recently mastered cartwheels and the splits and proudly practised them at home. "She was just a regular, awesome Aussie girl," Britvan said. Poltavchenko and Britvan both moved to Australia separately from Ukraine and met in Sydney through social media. They chose the name Matilda because it sounded unmistakably Australian. Their younger daughter, Summer, was named after the great Australian summer. Both parents have asked that the ABC identify Summer, because they say Matilda's story is strongly tied to her sister's legacy. "At school, they called them twins, even though there was three years between them in age," Poltavchenko said. Since the attack, Summer has been plagued by nightmares. She witnessed her older sister being shot. "She dreams about shootings everywhere - in the local park, at school... in one of her dreams, Matilda got shot but survived, but [Summer] was killed," Poltavchenko said. "She doesn't want to sleep in their bedroom... I feel like she's matured a few years in the last 30 days." The woman with red hair For weeks, the parents did not know the identity of the red-haired woman who shielded Summer behind a ute. They believe she saved their younger daughter's life because Summer would otherwise have run after her sister and into the line of fire. After a public call out, the woman was identified as Tash Willemsen when her stepfather recognised her in an online post. Willemsen had been running the petting zoo at the festival with her mother, Ally, and stepfather Dave when the shooting began. Her mother, who was grazed in the back by a bullet, also shielded a young girl separated from her parents. Summer and Willemsen were reunited at a vigil for the Bondi victims this month. "She not only hid a child, physically protected her, but she was comforting her, telling her 'it's OK, it's a firework, let's pet the rabbit'," Poltavchenko said. Willemsen said she acted on pure instinct, pulling in two girls, including Summer and a young man with a disability, and holding them closely until the shooting subsided. "I grabbed her hands and told her just to look at me, look at the floor, pretend they're fireworks," she said. The two now share a bond understood only by them. A yellow bridge as a memorial As Waverley Council debates the future of the footbridge used by the Bondi gunmen, both parents said it should remain as a permanent reminder of the violence that took their daughter's life. They have suggested painting the bridge yellow in honour of the dress Matilda wore on her final day and installing a plaque to commemorate the 15 victims of the attack. "I want it in place so people can go on it and look at the park from the highest point and feel the pain that was just in front of them," Poltavchenko said. "Things like this have to stay to remind us of the events," Britvan added. The couple have also supported renaming the park where the festival was held Matilda's Park. The family only recently returned to their Sydney apartment, unable to bear being at home without their eldest daughter. Summer refused to sleep in the bedroom she shared with Matilda and instead sleeps beside her parents. Slowly, the family is working through the events of 14 December as they try to preserve the memory of their daughter. "I used to say, 'She's the most beautiful, the smartest girl' ... she was very special to me," Britvan said.