Amira
My husband was always pushing to educate our children, including the girls, he believed it was very important to educate the girls. He told me that even when he died I had to make sure our children were educated. He loved to teach them. He passed away in 1999.⠀
I kept my promise & educated my daughters & my sons. I sent my eldest son to Russia to study. ⠀
Once the bombing started in Aleppo, we left the city & went to the suburbs with my youngest son & 2 youngest daughters. We didn't leave the house, or make friends with anybody, we didn't look after anybody. We didn't mix with anybody, not a lot or a little bit.
We stayed like this till 2012 when the gunmen entered the city of Hallab & the planes started bombing. I took my children & we escaped to the countryside where we stayed with parents of a friend of my son in Russia. We were with them for 10 months. ⠀
When my youngest son needed to be registered for university, I went to the city to do it because if he went, the government will take him & put him in the army. Or if it was in an area were there are gunmen, they will take him to join them.⠀
Even when I went there, the car I was in was bombed. But by the grace of the Lord, the Lord delivered me. I sorted his papers, & registered him. Then I went to apply for his passport.⠀
The girls & I had passports but he did not.⠀
My eldest son contacted us & said he wanted to take us to him in Russia. He kept talking to us for ten months till we got the passport. (I just want to get my youngest son out).
Once we got the passport, my eldest son booked flights for us. We returned to our house in Hallab. It hadn't been bombed. We slept there for one night, and packed 2 bags to take with us. In the morning my son & I went to to the store to buy a few things for the trip. While we were there the planes came out. The planes came out & dropped bombs. ⠀
The owner of the shop is my relative. He said the bombs reached my house. We left the shop, how we got back home I don't know. ⠀
We found the house destroyed - all three storeys, completely destroyed. ⠀
The girls were inside the house. They were 22 & 26.
In Syria, before the war, some people were rich, & some were poor. But in a way, all were satisfied & comfortable. We had everything we needed, we didn't pay for schools, or university. We had a lot of food because the country has a lot of richness, as in not rich but richness.
I lived 25 years & never had anything stolen from my house. When people entered the country, the chaos started. My house was robbed. Before the fighting, there was trust, there was normal life. It’s true, everybody had some problems. Some people had cars, some people didn’t have a car but everybody lived in unity. Everybody had what they need, both the rich & the poor. The people were living comfortably & happily. But when the trouble started, the rich packed his money and left the country, & the poor who didn't have enough to leave, had no options, they had to stay sitting under the bombs.
It was hardest for the children, the bombs from the planes scared them the most. They dropped barrels full of chemicals (serine gas and other things). The children would choke & die like chickens. They would die in the house. My brother’s son died from it. The way the chemical works, it doesn't go outside, it hits them in the house & they die. It affected the children & women the most in Syria because they were in the houses… and there are others that die, like my daughters; from the bombing of their house.
There are a lot of people that are oppressed, they don't have money to leave, so they are forced to stay. They are not with this party or that party, not with the government or the gunmen. These people, they died, they got shot. There is somebody I know that had his legs cut off. bombs, & the planes are to destroy the homes
This generation is lost, in a way that is frightening. The future of the children in Syria has gone. I want to tell you one thing, if my son didn’t take me out of Syria and I didn’t have money to leave, I would have stayed in Syria because I would be unable to leave. And those that stayed in Syria, they are unable to get out.
I’m talking about the regular people. They can't get out. Those that are still inside, they are the ones dying.
The day after our house was bombed & my daughters killed, my youngest son & I left for Russia.
My eldest son was waiting at the airport, he had a house for us. We stayed for nearly 3 months. When he finished his doctors internship, he was forbidden to work because he is not Russian. Our options were to return either to Turkey or Jordan. I sat with my son as he cried because he lost his chance to stay in Russia, just like that he was useless.
We thought our life was finished, but we decided we would sleep & see what God will do, what God will say to us. God said to us, go to Jordan. So we booked, & returned to Jordan.
When we arrived at the airport, they were no longer letting Syrians enter. They asked if we knew anybody there, we said no we don’t know anybody. They asked where are you going to go, we told them where we wanted to go. They said you can’t go there, if somebody knows you, okay, but if there isn't anybody that knows you, you cannot go.
They started talking to my eldest son, and asked what he did for work, he said I am a doctor. When they saw he was a doctor they changed their view of him. A man came to me, I was sitting outside, & he said I apologize, you are not only the mother of a doctor but you are a mother to all of us! They gave us our bags & sent us on our way.
It was night & we didn’t know where we were going to go, we didn’t know anybody. We took a small hotel room & stayed three days while my sons looked for a house. We found a house & stayed three months paying rent. Then all our money was gone, we couldn't pay the rent. The owner of the house told us to leave. My sons packed our bags, we didn't have any other things, we had three blankets which we used to cover ourselves, that’s all.
I waited outside while they went to get a car. The owner of the house came & saw me sitting, he said, here is the key to the house, go back to the house. My sons came back & I told them that he came & said to return to the house. They asked where he was, I said he gave me the key & he left. So we took the key, opened the house & we stayed there. From that day he never took from us rent for the house. To this day.
