Six weeks after model Dominique lost her mum, dozens of strangers gathered at the bottom of the stairs. They helped heal her

When Dominique Elissa lost her mother Odile Faludi to cancer in March 2025, the world felt different. That was until a group of strangers came together to help her.

Faludi passed away two weeks after fulfilling her dream of walking her daughter down the aisle.

Elissa was married at Prince of Wales Private Hospital, where her mother was a patient, and shared the emotional day with her 300,000 Instagram followers.

The model and influencer expected nothing but condolences from the community she had built online. Little did she know they were getting ready to show up for her in a way she could have never anticipated.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been through grief and loss, but it feels really weird to go back to your normal routine; everything feels completely different,” Elissa told nine.com.au

A year before, Elissa had started a weekly walking club in Bondi. A group of 15 to 20 girls would meet at 6.30am every Thursday outside the Bondi Pavilion.

When Elissa lost her mother, she stopped hosting the walking club for six weeks.

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“I didn’t really know how to kind of just get back to community,” she explained.

“[But] one of the things that made me want to start again was that my mum used to come, so many of the girls had met her, and she was a big community person.”

So she announced the walk club would be starting back up again.

When she approached the stairs at the Bondi Pavilion, she was gobsmacked to see triple the number of people standing there waiting for her.

“I was shocked and quite emotional,” she told nine.com.au. “I’d known that my story had connected to people, but seeing people actually come down and give me a hug, it was quite emotional.

“Strangers I didn’t know had made me cakes. One person drew me an artwork of my mum, myself, my husband and dad at my wedding,” she said.

That drawing is now in a frame positioned on her bedside table.

“I always say mum’s throwing me signs left, right and centre, and that was a sign from her to keep going with the walking club. Everyone was coming down for it and everyone felt connected to her.”

Since then, the walking club has grown to a group of 60 to 80 girls.

“I always enjoyed walking by myself, and it really showed me that walking with other people is the healthiest thing you can do,” she said.

A long-term study into adulthood by Harvard University found that close relationships and community are extremely powerful tools for improved health. It found that people who kept good relationships lived longer and had happier lives.

It’s been a year since Elissa lost her mother, and two since she started that community who traipse from Bondi to Coogee together week after week.

Elissa, who is in her third trimester of pregnancy, says she’ll be taking a break from the walking club after having her child, but will start back up again in December.

“Anyone is welcome,” she promised.

“We’ve had mothers come down and during the school holidays, a bunch of kids come. It really is such a diverse and amazing womanhood community that we’ve created.”