At the end of 2018 Ruth Togiai was given just a month to live, following a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Her son Ben had moved back home after the breakdown of his marriage and the days she got to spend with him were precious, believing they were numbered.
It was never expected those numbered days would be Ben's.
For the Togiai family, March 1 had always been a day of celebration - the birthday of Ben's niece.
On that day in 2019 he was looking forward to her party, but when his boss secured expensive tickets to a boxing match in Melbourne that meant he would miss it, he promised a big celebration to make it up to her.
But the father-of-one was killed by Abdullah El Nasher, who fired five shots into a crowd outside the boxing match at the Melbourne Pavilion.
A jury found El Nasher guilty of Mr Togiai's murder, and of intentionally causing serious injury to Omar Bchinnati, who required emergency surgery to remove a bullet from his leg.
El Nasher on Friday pleaded guilty to two additional charges of being a prohibited person possessing and using a firearm on that day.
Mrs Togiai, who survived her cancer for a second time, said there were no words to express the feeling of a mother losing a child in such a violent and unexpected way.
She was still undergoing chemotherapy when he died, and had to go into hospital for more treatment the night of his funeral.
"It was the hardest night of my life - on a hospital bed with harsh chemo treatment running through my body, knowing I'd go home in a week to a home without my precious son," she said.
For his family, Ben's vibrance and outgoing personality are missed daily and can never be replaced, she said.
For Ben, he has been robbed of seeing his little girl, now eight, grow up and experience all the important milestones of her life.
His sisters described Ben's death as a nightmare and a daily hell they battle, missing the man who had done anything and everything for them - wanting nothing more than his favourite dinner in exchange.
They told El Nasher that he didn't just take one life, but a piece of every life connected to his.
El Nasher was convicted after the jury was told of tension at the boxing event between El Nasher's group on table 28 and another group on table 64 that included Mr Togiai and Mr Bchinnati.
Just before 10pm the groups on both tables were kicked out by event organisers.
As they gathered outside, El Nasher ran across the road and fired five shots.
Mr Togiai was hit once in the chest with a bullet and died at the scene.
Justice Christopher Beale will hand down his sentence on November 28.
