The heaviest burden has been placed upon me; it was not my house that was destroyed, but my lineage that was annihilated. The white snow cover may hide everything, but it will never hide my losses. Just before the earthquake, we were playing with snowballs. And now I am clearing the snow from their graves. There is no home for me to return to, and no memories for me to embrace. We all had great hopes. A Turkish man captured the attention of thousands after appearing in photos and videos carrying coffee for his wife, who passed away three years ago. This earned him praise and acclaim from social media users in the country, especially as he visits her grave daily with a cup of coffee in his hand. Despite three years having passed since the February 6th earthquake that struck the Turkish city of Maraş, Emre Bozkurt is still grieving. He emerged from the rubble of a residential building, but later buried three of his family members who died in the earthquake: his 30-year-old wife and their two children, aged three and five. Bozkurt is 32 years old and had been trapped under the rubble for about seven hours before finding his wife's and children's bodies three days after the devastating earthquake that hit his city three years ago, killing thousands. Turkish media report Bozkurt as saying he is suffering the greatest loss of his life and spends most of his time at the cemetery since losing his family members. He leaves coffee for his wife, places toys on his children's graves, and prays. The Turkish man describes his experience to Turkish media, saying, 'Time does not alleviate the pain, but rather deepens it,' adding of his wife's love for coffee at her grave: 'Every day, every second, it is still as if it were February 6th for me.' Bozkurt expresses his deep sorrow over the loss of his children's dreams, saying: 'My daughter was supposed to go to kindergarten, and my son was about to start as well. I have become the guardian of the pain here. The love has not changed, only my place has, and I am here at their graves every day.' The Turkish man affirms that he has nothing left to hold on to in life, saying, 'The earthquake did not just destroy buildings, it destroyed my past and my future,' expressing his feeling of loneliness and warning the community: 'Death robs a person of their entire future in a single night.'
