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. Then 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.'
Serhiy says he 'felt a shake, as if some kind of wave passed,' wondered if it was a mild earthquake, and fell back to sleep. The 19-year-old trainee teacher and 25-year-old power plant engineer were looking forward to married life in the newly built Soviet city of Pripyat, oblivious to the world's worst nuclear accident unfolding just 2.5 miles away.
By 6am, the wedding day dawned gloriously sunny, and Serhiy rushed to carry out errands for their celebration. He noticed soldiers in gas masks outside, while the market he visited was deserted due to growing tensions. Iryna, meanwhile, listened to her mother's alarmed neighbors, yet official statements reassured citizens that all was normal.
Despite official declarations, the wedding banquet felt 'sad,' with guests aware of an unsettling incident nearby but lacking details. Their first dance devolved into a silent embrace, overwhelmed by the emerging reality of their tragic surroundings. Later, as the couple and their guests prepared to head back to their lives, news of an evacuation led them to flee the site of their wedding for good.
Decades later, Iryna and Serhiy, now residing in Berlin, reflect on their turbulent life journey, shaped by love and loss against the backdrop of a nuclear disaster and an ongoing armed conflict. Their marriage, established amidst uncertainty, remains a testament to the strength of their bond.
