WITH one daughter dead, another in hospital and his wife clinging to life, Tony Hakin is caught in an unimaginable nightmare
The heartbroken father of 10-year-old Thalia Hakin who was killed in the Bourke Street mall tragedy has been running between hospitals caring for his wife and younger daughter fighting for their lives in hospital.
Tony Hakin was coping as well as he could, despite tending to his critically injured wife Nathalie and seriously injured nine-year-old daughter Maggie, a friend of the family, Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler, told news.com.au.
Rabbi Smukler, who is the principal of the girls’ school, Beth Rivkah College, said he doubted Mr Hakin had had an opportunity to process the loss of his daughter yet.
“He’s stoic, he’s strong. I’m assuming he’s probably in shock. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to put one foot in front of the other,” Rabbi Smukler told reporter Andrew Koubaridis.
“He’s running between hospitals with everything that’s going on and to deal with it all. And he hasn’t even buried his daughter yet.”
He said that while Maggie Hakin was now seeing visitors at Royal Children’s Hospital, Nathalie remained seriously unwell at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Both were with Thalia when a driver ploughed into shoppers in Melbourne’s CBD on Friday, killing four other people and injuring dozens.
“Natalie really needs our prayers payers for recovery — god willing she will,” Rabbi Smukler said.