She is not there anymore

In her cramped little kitchen, I learnt many secrets: how to stuff aubergine with nuts and chilli, how to steer the yoghurt on the stove until it boiled and how to repurpose the kitchen items and never throw anything away.

Despite my regular arguments with her about the amount of fat she sneaks into her dishes, I loved to eat at her place. The aroma of her cooking could be smelled three floors down her building and through the entrance in the middle of Al-Midan neighbourhood in the south of Damascus, where she lived her whole life.