The mother of an Australian au pair who was killed during the London Bridge attacks in 2017 has revealed the last thing her daughter said to her.
Sara Zelenak had been on a ‘trip of a lifetime’ in London with her brother when she was stabbed to death by terrorists.
Now her mother Julie Wallace has spoken of the last few hours of her daughter’s life, who she described as being ‘the happiest she had ever been’, after speaking to her just hours before her death.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain she said: ‘She wanted to go and see the world. She wanted to go to London because it was one of the fashion capitals of the world and she had an au pair family that she was looking after two little boys for three months and then travelling on to Europe.
‘Then then we were meeting her in Paris in 27 sleeps, that was the last thing she said to me.’
Sara Zelenak, 21 (pictured in handout photo) had met up for drinks with her friend near London Bridge before terrorists killed her and seven others on June 3 2017
Julie Wallace (pictured above) said her daughter had been the ‘happiest she had ever been’ on the night of her death
Julie said the 21-year-old had called her that night to discuss their upcoming trip together.
‘On that night she was the happiest she had ever been, she was doing all the things 21-year-olds should do before you have children, before you get into your career, before you do all those things.
‘I encouraged her to do all those things, we all did, we told her to do it now because otherwise you have to wait until you’re like 50.
‘She was really happy and we were just counting down the days to see her and to have a family holiday. Meeting her in Paris on the 30th June.’
The family believed that Sara was working on that fateful night on June 3, however her plans changed when she managed to get the evening off.
Her stepfather Mark Wallace said there had been a lot of things leading for Sara to have been where she was that night.
‘From having the night off and then contacting a girlfriend to say let’s go out. It was something where when she went out she wanted to get all dressed up and go somewhere classy – that was what she was saying and they were going to Soho
‘That was the first point she was going to go and then that changed and there were a few more sliding doors to lead her to end up where she was.’
Julie and Mark Wallace (pictured above) said they had originally thought that Sara was a missing person
The morning after the family were contacted by friends who informed them there had been a terrorist attack in London.
Mark added: ‘It was just something like ‘oh it happens on the other side of the world and it had happened again’. There was no thought of Sara being involved and even to the point and within the next 24 hours there was never the thought that it could be Sara.’
The family headed to London under the impression that Sara was a missing person.
Julie said they had been stopping over in Abu Dhabi when he son called to deliver the fateful news.
‘We were actually stopping down in to refuel in Abu Dhabi and she was a missing person and my son rang and said mum the DNA results prove that Sara’s dead and I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
Australian Ms Zelenak was stabbed in the neck after she fell over in her high heels. She is pictured earlier that evening
‘I was actually on the plane with my seat belt on and I couldn’t breath I was just buckled over and I just went into shock.
‘They actually wanted to get it on the 6 o’clock news so we were actually the last ones to find out in the world that she had died and it was really horrible circumstances to find out that way.
‘It was horrendous, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, it was terrible’.
The family have now launched a charity called Sar’s Sanctuary, a non-profit trauma retreat.
Julie and Mark (pictured above) said it was a ‘horrible’ situation and Julie said she felt like she was going to have a heart attack
The family have now launched a charity to help those who are trying to deal with trauma
Julie said: ‘One of our main events is called ‘meet us in Paris’, we were meant to meant Sara in Paris on 30th June which we couldn’t and now it’s an annual event.
‘We have 50 riders, riding from Borough Market where she was killed to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and that will take about seven days.
‘We want to offer a five day healing retreat programme for people. They come in and they can have holistic healing so they can do yoga, mindfulness, meditation, massage, organic food and it’s a personal journey when you have grief so you can chose to do as much or as little as you need.’