A sobering letter written by 10-year-old Thalia Hakin, just months before she was tragically killed in the Bourke Street attack in Melbourne last Friday, has been published by a Jewish news website.
The letter was written between the Jewish celebrations of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as part of an international schoolgirl’s competition, and speaks of the world moving from “darkness” to “light”.
“When you light up a candle you light up your neshema [soul],” Thalia wrote in the letter published by The Australian Jewish News.
“And you light up the world. And when you light up the world you make it a better place. Like for you, me and everybody.
“Now the world is dark but soon to be bright for us. And im yirtzeh hashem [God willing] mashiach [the messiah] will come.”
Thalia was one of the youngest victims killed when Dimitrious “Jimmy” Gargasoulas, 26, allegedly drove into a crowd along Bourke Street.
She was laid to rest yesterday by family and friends following a procession through her school in St Kilda East.
Jess Mudie, 22, Matthew Si, 33, three-month-old Zachary Bryant and a 25-year-old man were also killed.
READ MORE: Young Bourke Street victim remembered as ‘shining light’