The colour of sorrow
Stories
The colour of sorrow
Lina fled Syria when snipers gunned down her teenage son. Now a refugee in Jordan, she is drawing strength from her art.
Lina works on a drawing in Jordan.
© UNHCR/Jessica Chen
Lina's world fell apart when snipers gunned down her son Yaser as he ran to protect his pregnant aunt. Just 16, he had been the light of her life. But on the deadly streets of Syria, there was little time to mourn his passing.
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With her two remaining children, Lina fled the family home and sought refuge in Jordan, where today she seeks solace in her art. Drawing allows her to enter a different world, a kinder, more peaceful one, in which Yaser's spirit lives on.
"I feel his soul lingering around me," she tells UNHCR in a short film. "This makes me feel safe. I wait for the nights so I can draw."
Lina's small studio is filled with brightly coloured portraits and dreamlike landscapes. "It doesn't matter how bad I feel," she says. "Once I hold the pencil and enter this world I love, my energy and life get renewed."
