Heartbroken all over again
Eva Geller’s death deepens Bondi’s grief and raises an urgent question: has Australia learned anything?
We thought all our tears had been shed.
Almost 11 months on from the Bondi terror attack, we have cried, comforted one another and stood shoulder-to-shoulder at vigils. We can never forget, but we have tried to get on with life. We had memorised the names, faces and stories of the 15 people we lost. We did not expect there would be another. Now our hearts have been broken all over again.
We cannot imagine the pain Eva Geller’s family must be feeling. She defied the odds to not only survive in the immediate aftermath of the shooting but to walk again, only to ultimately succumb to medical complications related to her injuries.
What a remarkable human being she must have been.
The timing of her death also cannot be ignored, coming on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, an event which foreshadowed the darkest chapter in the history of the Jewish people. It is a cruel irony that Eva fled Romania with her family to escape the Holocaust, only to fall victim to the same hatred that led to it.
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