Ernestine Kabuo returned home after fleeing the lava flow in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, to find that her husband had not survived.
The 68 year old was unable to carry her sick husband out of their house and she found him burnt to death, she told Reuters news agency.
At least 22 deaths have been confirmed following Saturday’s eruption of a nearby volcano, Mount Nyiragongo.
But the lava stopped short of the city’s built-up area.
This avoided the level of death and destruction witnessed in 2002. It did, however, hit the Buhene district, where Ms Kabuo’s home was.
“I said to myself: I can’t go alone, we’ve been married for the best and for the worst,” she told Reuters reflecting on what happened on Saturday.
“I went back to at least try to get him out but couldn’t. I ran away and he got burned inside. I don’t know what to do. I curse this day.”
Five people died of asphyxiation while trying to cross the lava when it was cooling in a place just north of Goma.
A sixth person is in hospital with breathing difficulties, civil society leader Mambo Kawaya told the AFP news agency.
Since then, the authorities have tried to prevent people from visiting places where the lava is cooling, Goma journalist Esdras Tsongo told the BBC’s Focus on Africa radio programme.
Other Goma residents, a city of 670,000 according to UN estimates, are searching for missing loved ones as the city, and the region, continues to experience earthquakes.
More than 170 children are feared to be missing and 150 others had been separated from their families, the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, said, adding that centres would be set up to help unaccompanied minors.
Nine of the deaths so far recorded by the authorities occurred in a traffic accident as people fled.
Four others died as they tried to escape a prison while two were burned to death, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Sunday.
But there are fears that more deaths may be confirmed as people return to the remains of their houses.
The lava stopped in the Buhene district, on the outskirts of Goma, burying hundreds of houses and even large buildings. Reconstruction efforts are likely to take months.
“All the houses in Buhene neighbourhood were burned,” Innocent Bahala Shamavu told the Associated Press news agency.
Elsewhere, lava crossed the N2 road connecting Goma to the city of Beni, severing a key aid and supply route. However, the city’s airport was untouched, despite earlier reports that it had been affected.
The volcano, located 10km (six miles) from Goma, last erupted in 2002, killing 250 people and making 120,000 homeless.
Residents started leaving their houses even before the government announced an evacuation plan. At night, crowds were seen fleeing on foot with mattresses and other belongings.
Rwandan authorities said more than 3,000 people had officially crossed from Goma. Some started to return on Sunday. Others went to higher ground to the west of the city.
