Still, she never left Duma, a former rebel stronghold outside Damascus where she was born and bred.

It saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Syrian civil war that started a decade ago.

Mother, I don't want to remember, she says of the anniversary.

It was too cruel.

I wish the war hadn't happened and we lived in peace.

But this is God's will.

Age 74 wheelchair bound by heart condition ham, who looks after her son's for surviving Children, a widowed daughter, another daughter and her family.

Before the war, her husband owned a mini market, and they were quite well off.

Her son in lawyer Sinaloa for was a builder earning enough to support his family, now his jobless and confined to his bed after back surgery.

Before the crisis, we were working and providing for our household.

There was always something to aim for.

Their plight isn't unusual.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria and millions more forced to flee their homes.

President Bashar al Assad survived the insurgency and Duma is back under government control.

Its streets are busy but battle scarred.

Um, Bashir Assad, You're lives with her mother in law and four Children.

She was widowed in the last few days of the shelling.

If only my husband hadn't departed, she says.

But he did, and we're poor.

She washes and cuts up lettuce to deliver to local restaurants to make ends meet.

It's too late for us now, but I'm hoping things will get better for the Children.

After years of siege, Russian backed aerial bombing forced the rebels to relinquish Duma in 2018.

Many residents who fled to the Turkish held north are not allowed back.