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 felt a shake, as if some kind of wave had 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, blissfully unaware that the world's worst nuclear accident was unfolding less than 2.5 miles away.

On the morning of April 26, 1986, Serhiy woke around 6 a.m. to find his wedding day dawning gloriously sunny. He had errands to run—bed linen to take to a friend's apartment and flowers to buy. As the day progressed, smoke rose from reactor four, indicating that firefighters and power plant workers had spent the night risking lethal doses of radiation to address a huge toxic blaze. The couple's wedding banquet felt sad, Serhiy recounted; everyone understood something had happened but lacked details.

By the time ceremonies were over, and the couple returned to a friend's apartment, they were met with urgent news—they had to rush to an evacuation train due to leave at 5 a.m. Their lives changed forever as they witnessed the glow of the collapsed reactor from the train.

Now living in Germany, Iryna and Serhiy reflect on their harrowing wedding day and how their bond has deepened through decades of adversity, including recent conflicts. We really can't be one without the other, Iryna stated, encapsulating their journey through life amid chaos.