In these days after the Sydney siege, I probably don’t remember myself crying as much over matters that didn’t directly affect my loved ones, since 9/11. Sydney is my home. It is where 2 of my children live, where the people they love and I love live. We are getting ready for Christmas. Feeling busy and tired and preoccupied with things that really don’t matter so much but feeling overwhelmed just the same, when one incident stops us. It stopped Sydney. It stopped Australia and parts of the world. A man with a gun and who knows what other weaponry, walked into a coffee shop and hijacked some of our people. They were simply doing what so many of us do on a work morning, getting a morning coffee to help start their day. The innocence of it so frightening. How can there be danger in such a simple innocent act. I felt frozen for the hours these poor souls were living out their terror and each time a tortured face emerged from the café with their hands up, running for their lives, it amplified what was going on in that café. In the early hours of the morning, two of these innocents lost their lives and our whole city was left bleeding. We lost a mother of three children and a young man, both of who had got up like a lot of us, just to go to work. Leaving things unfinished at home to attend to later that evening, and never getting there. How these unfinished things must torture their loved ones! Those who escaped bear I’m sure the scars of such a violent experience. Facing a gun, threats of death and witnessing death.
To blog about anything else this week seemed meaningless to me. Maybe this is just a place where I can grieve. Who knows? All I know is that this city was torn apart and united like no other time all at the same time. The site of the siege is bathed in flowers reminiscent of when Diana died. The creation of the #illridewithyou tag showed innocent Muslims what this city is made of. So many demonstrations of love and grief have engulfed this city. No retaliatory violence, just a city bowing its heads in sorrow and reverence for the tragedy that hit our city and our people.
For those who suffered those hours of unimaginable fear, I think of you. For those we lost, I’m so sorry your lives ended this way. I will always remember you.
