Sunday 22 May 2022 02:13 PM Mum of three kids killed by drunk driver opens up about the difficult question ... trends now
The mother of three children killed by a drunk driver has opened up about the difficult question strangers always ask her.
Leila and Danny Abdallah lost three of their children - Sienna, 8, Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13 - in February 2020 after the driver, who was also high on drugs, ran them over and killed them.
Their niece Veronique Sakr, 11, was also killed in the crash and their only remaining daughter at the time, Liana, sustained a head injury.
The Abdallahs also had two boys, Alex and Michael, and two months ago, on March 18, another daughter Selina was born.
Desite losing three children, when Ms Abdallah, 37, is asked how many kids she has, she always says seven.
Leila and Danny Abdallah (pictured), who lost three of their children when they were killed by a drunk driver in February 2020, welcomed a new baby daughter, Selina (pictured being held by her parents), in March
'I've always been prepared for that question,' Leila told News Corp. 'When someone asks me how many kids I have, I just answer that I have seven kids.
'When people ask further I say I've got three in heaven and four here, then people realise who I am.'
Ms Abdallah named her new baby Selina because it is a mix of the names of their girls Sienna and Angelina, who died in the crash, and daughter Liana, who survived.
Ms Abdallah recently took Selina to the memorial site for her children and niece. She said it breaks her heart that that is the closest she can get to her brother and sisters.
She and her husband, 44, get a lot of calls and messages from people who have lost loved ones, to ask how they manage to cope with the enormous grief.
The Abdallah family as they were before the tragedy which took the lives of Antony (left) and two of his sisters, Sienna and Angelina
Her powerful advice is to focus on what you still have. In the Abdallah's case, that is their four surviving children, without ever forgetting the three who are in heaven.
The driver who killed their children and niece, Samuel Davidson, was sentenced to 28 years in jail and is not eligible for parole until 2041.
Mr Abdallah said he forgave Davidson 'for your sake, for my sake, and most importantly for my family's sake' in a victim impact statement.
He revealed last week that Scott Morrison phoned him after the killer was jailed to say: 'Nothing will ever replace your kids but this is a good sentencing'.
Speaking to businessman Mark Bouris on his Straight Talk podcast, Mr Abdallah recalled the moment he got a call from Mr Morrison as he left court in April 2021 after Davidson received Australia's longest ever sentence for manslaughter.
Immediately after Samuel William Davidson mowed down a group of children on a Sydney
