Hundreds have turned out to pay their respect to the family affected. Photo / News Corp Australia
Hundreds have turned out to pay their respect to the family affected. Photo / News Corp Australia
Thousands have poured out onto the streets to pay their respects to the three Abdallah siblings killed in a tragic 4WD crash in western Sydney last weekend.
Streets are closed around the Our Lady of Lebanon church in Harris Park this morning as Christian hymns ring out over the PA system.
The crowd is so big it's spilling out onto the street. Jenny Morrison and community leaders are among those paying their respects this morning, news.com.au reports.
The priest said the siblings' parents Daniel and Leila wanted this morning to be a celebration of the lives of Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, and Sienna, 9, through religious ceremony and prayer.
He said the three children were taken from the world at a "tender age".
The priest told hundreds of people gathered at the church the siblings' mother Leila had "shocked the world" with her words of forgiveness for alleged drink driver who took their lives.
He said the three children had brought everyone together.
Sienna and Angelina Abdallah were both killed in the crash. Photo / Supplied
In a deeply religious Maronite ceremony of chanting, singing and prayer the priest said the children were deeply connected to their faith.
He said in one of the last moments Daniel spent with his son Antony he was driving him to a basketball game.
He said the teenager told his father he was going to play for basketball legend Kobe Bryant and they should stop at a church to pray on the way.
About 2000 people filled the church and lined the courtyard - some holding white roses and wearing pins with photos of the Abdallah siblings - as white hearses arrived.
Drummers from the Kings School, which Antony attended, led the procession into the church, followed by the children's parents.
Bells tolled as pallbearers - wearing navy suits with pink shirts to represent the children's genders - carried the coffins into the church.
Antony Abdallah and
Veronique Sakr also died in the crash. Photo / Supplied
A contingent of about 100 students from the Kings School and Tara Anglican School - which Sienna and Angelina attended - were also at the service.
Danny and Leila Abdallah, the parents of Antony, Angelina and Sienna, recently revealed the "heart-wrenching sorrow" they have felt since the tragedy.
"Our children are our reason for living. Bringing them up in accordance with the ways of God, teaching them to love, affording them every opportunity and nurturing them into positive and impacting young men and women was, and is our life's purpose," they said.
"What is life without your children? How and where do we begin to pick up the pieces so that we may be effective parents to our three remaining angels?
"We start with forgiveness."
In their statement the grieving parents say they have made the decision to forgive Mr Davidson, stating that his "actions will be met before the earthly and heavenly judge".
