Final send-off for beloved Sydney couple

Sydney friends and family of Sonia Marra and partner Helen Tamaki will be able to pay their respects to the couple this weekend, some six months after their fatal helicopter crash in New York.

Newtown identity and former Madam Fling Flongs and Soni’s Restaurant owner Sonia Marra, her mother Harriet Nicholson, stepfather Paul Nicholson and Tamaki were celebrating Marra’s 40th birthday in New York on October 4 2011 with a scenic helicopter ride. The helicopter crashed into the East River shortly after take-off, resulting in the deaths of the three female passengers.

With the three women’s funerals held overseas, longtime friend Ali Hughes said the much-loved couple’s local friends had been working for months to find the right time to pay their respects.

“There’s a group of about 13 or 14 of us here in Sydney who’ve been putting this all together, and we’ve been meeting about once a month since they passed to talk about how and where to do it,” Hughes told the Star Observer.

“It’s been a matter of finding a time when Helen’s family can come over from New Zealand, and Soni’s dad and sister can come over from the UK and Portugal,”

A memorial will be held at St Stephen’s Anglican Church in Newtown on Sunday, April 1, 1-2.30pm, followed by drinks from 3.30pm at the nearby Bank Hotel.

“It’ll be a way for people to find closure, because it’s been so long since the accident and it hasn’t really seemed real for many of us,” Hughes said.

“It’ll be a broad celebration of their humour and their life and the things they were involved in.

“Helen was involved in Sydney Homeless Connect when it first started, and she’s been a big figure in a lot of charity work that people wouldn’t even know about, because she was so quiet about it.

“And Soni’s been a mainstay on King St and in Newtown and Glebe for about 12 years now.”

People seeking further information can contact Hughes at [email protected] or search for the ‘Helen Tamaki and Sonia Marra Memorial’ public event on Facebook.

Pictured: Helen Tamaki (left) and Sonia Marra (right).