It was just after midnight. Iryna Stetsenko had finished doing her nails for her wedding, opened the balcony door and was battling her nerves to get to sleep. In a nearby apartment packed with guests, her fiancé Serhiy Lobanov was asleep on a mattress in the kitchen.
Suddenly, a rumble disturbed the quiet, says Iryna. It was as if a lot of planes were flying overhead, everything was humming and the glass in the windows shook. Meanwhile, Serhiy wondered if he was experiencing an earthquake before falling back asleep.
Their wedding began on the morning of April 26, 1986, with glorious sunshine as Serhiy woke up excited and ran errands, blissfully unaware that the world’s worst nuclear accident was happening just miles away at the Chernobyl power plant.
As the actual events unfolded throughout the day, guests at their wedding sensed something was wrong. The banquet felt sad, not celebratory, Serhiy recalled, noting that uncertainty loomed over the festivities as they danced amid rising concerns.
Just hours after their wedding, they were urged to evacuate due to the escalating disaster. They had only planned for a short trip, but this began a life of dislocation. Now living in Berlin, they have spent over 40 years together, weathering numerous storms including a recent conflict driving them from their home in Ukraine yet again.
Iryna and Serhiy reflect on their wedding day, underscoring the challenges they faced and the bond that has kept them together. I think we really had to go through some difficulties in life, in order to understand that we… really can't be one without the other, Iryna says, summarizing their profound journey.
