Huda Khayti always knew that this day would come. While she worried that the world might have sidelined Syria over the course of nearly a decade and a half of war, she never stopped hoping.

"I knew that one day we would overthrow the Assad regime," she told DW on the phone.

In December, when the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, toppled Syria's longtime dictator, Bashar Assad, in an unexpected advance, the now-44-year-old Huda was overwhelmed by a sense of relief that she still can't put into words.

And yet, while the end of the Assad-regime marked a new political era for Syria, it also brought up all the uncertainties that come with new beginnings.

The country's restart after decades of iron-fist rule by the Assad family was not unclouded for Khayti either.

The day after Assad was gone, she started the journey from her temporary home in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib back to her home town Duma. Her fear grew with every kilometer, but so did her determination. She had to see what was left of her old life.

Yet, once she reached Duma, all she could see was destruction. Eventually she reached her parents' house. The walls were shot to pieces, parts of the roof had collapsed. She entered cautiously, each step bringing back memories.

Debris and the shadows of the past now lie where her home once was.

"I couldn't last five minutes in there," she tells DW.

Marks of the air strike by the regime that killed her brother were still visible.

She then tried to find the grave of her brother.

"I don't know where they buried him," she says, heartbroken. "He is probably in a mass grave."

Despite the grief,........

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