«He always said, 'Mom, never let me see you cry, don't let there be tears in your eyes'»

Galina Danilyova adjusts her black headscarf and then looks at the gate of her house. The faded, slightly rusty door does not open. The Assyrian woman's gaze darkens, even though it's noon outside. Water containers are by the veranda. In the small yard, there are fruit trees, which were often watered by her only child, Arsen.

The midday heat in Arznu is not as suffocating as the first notes of our conversation. Mrs. Galina weeps openly, and the sound seems to dissolve into the silence of the yard.

- We don't have land, but Arsen went to fight... the 62-year-old woman says loudly. It is simply impossible to look at her face; the clouds of sadness have thickened there, and the words thunder loudly.

Then, almost absentmindedly, she wipes her eyes, her voice calming down a bit, and looking at some distant points she says that if, for example, they lived in Russia, Arsen would still go to war. According to Mrs. Galina, wherever a person lives becomes the homeland for which one must fight.

She had envisioned her son Arsen's life like a fairy tale, but it had an unexpected ending. And that ending pains her, wearing her down day by day, without extinguishing the feeble hope of his return.

After finishing 9th grade, Arsen had started working at the poultry farm in Arznu. He would take the eggs from the barn to the sorting department, which were then sent to the packing department where his mother worked. For almost two years, mother and son went to work together. Generally, they did not talk much on the way, and now the mother regrets those silent moments. She regrets that she didn't ask her son many questions, saying, 'Who knew what would happen?' Arsen earned a salary, and with that money, he mostly covered the household expenses. His father had died when he was 10 years old.

The care and attention towards his mother were special from the boy. Sometimes he would buy her gifts with his salary, and he would prepare a surprise gift for her birthday in advance and hide it. They usually went together to the celebrations of relatives and friends.

About three months before being drafted into the army, Arsen had worked in a vegetable shop in Abovyan city. There, he received a higher salary, and in addition, he also brought home vegetables and fruits. 'He was a creator, a hardworking boy,' his mother notes.

Before being drafted, he told his mother that when he returned, he would not let her work. He often repeated this thought during his service. 'He would ask,