'He didn't show up': Phone call that turned Padova's life on its head at age 16

Teenager Padova Saouma was waiting for her dad to pick her up when she received a call from her mum.

"He was supposed to pick me up from tutoring and he didn't show up," Saouma, 22, from Sydney tells 9honey. Her father had suffered a heart attack.

"And then she told us to take it slow, and she said to go home where they were waiting for a doctor."

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Nothing could be done. At the age of 16, Saouma lost her dad. Her father George was in his fifties when he died.

"It was a shock to my family," she says.

"I know his family, his parents and his sister, both died from heart problems ... he did go and check up because of that reason."

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"He came from Lebanon with my mum and pretty much started a new life here for me and my sister," Saouma says. "I can't thank him enough."

Grief hit her hard, particularly as she was in her senior years of high school. The school provided therapy for her but she feels she "didn't really benefit from it", preferring to grieve in private.

To this day she struggles with the loss.

"I see something and I'd be like, 'Oh, my dad was like that. Oh, my dad liked beers. He took me here once,'" she recalls.

"I would meet someone new and I'd say, 'Oh I wish my dad could have been here to,' little things in life that just, it impacts.'"

She remembers the last time she spoke to him before his death. It was early in the morning the day he died.

"I was on the kitchen floor, stitching something for art. He woke up really early – he goes to the flower market to get his work – I stayed up and he was waking up and he pretty much said, like, 'Oh that looks so good,' like my artwork, and then just like he went to work. That was my last conversation."

Saouma made it through her final year of high school, explaining the routine helped. She didn't know anyone else who had lost their dad.

Her grief would hit at unexpected times.

"I remember there was one time though, I was like stressing out because of one of my textile majors and I ended up just bawling my eyes out," she recalls.

She later discovered her dad had been donating to Heart Research Australia.

When Saouma decided to compete in the Miss Lebanon competition she knew she too would be raising funds for the organisation.

When she was crowned Miss Lebanon, she felt it was "meant to be".

She is hoping for further research into heart health improves early screenings and helps teach prevention.

"I had to do some scans after his passing just to see where I place," she says of her own health.

"I have some friends that work in cardiovascular research and and they told me is that the future is bright in that sense and there will be something," she said.

REDFEB by Heart Research Australia is a month dedicated to raising awareness for heart health and raising much-needed funds for research. Can you help us fund life-saving breakthroughs keep families together for longer? Getting involved is as simple as REDFEB by Heart Research Australia.

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