By Tatyana Floam
Every time I think about that day, it brings tears to my eyes.

We lived in Kiev, Ukraine, about an hour away from Chernobyl, when it happened. I was 22, married, on maternity leave taking care of our 15-month-old son Danny. We knew about the accident that day, but were not sure how bad it was, and what it really meant for us.

In apartment building where we lived, many of our neighbors were bus drivers. All of them were sent to evacuate people from the Chernobyl area. We were not worried much since we didn’t hear anything on the news for days. When we finally did hear about the accident, we still thought it was OK because May Day Parade was on as scheduled.

Then we heard about the cloud going over and panicking Japan. All over our town streets were being hosed down with water, thick plastic curtains were hung on all the store doors, shoes were hosed with water before you could enter airports. It was eerie.

A decision had to be made.

We lived with my ex-in-laws. We are so thankful to them and I believe we are OK because of them. They took all of their children and their families out of town for all summer. We all went to Georgia on Black Sea. When my son’s father and others who had to return to work left, we decided that my son and I would travel to Leningrad for a few weeks.

Then we heard less and less about Chernobyl. We had to move on, we had no choice.

Our friends with families in America were planning to leave the country. They kept telling us to do the same.
My ex-mother-in-law has a cousin in Baltimore, so we started thinking about leaving too. Moving to a strange country, leaving every one we loved behind, new language, going to a country we were afraid of while growing up. But what could be worse than were we lived?

In February of 1988 we were able to leave USSR with only a suitcase of belongings and a $100 per person allowed. They made us feel like we were traitors, leaving our motherland, taking our citizenships away. It took us till April 14 to enter America as immigrants. A new chapter of our lives began.

We all are doing great, with no health issues. We are the lucky ones.

In two weeks, the first time in 20 years, I’m taking my all five children back to Kiev to visit our family. I don’t know what kept me from going back for so long, but I try to think that it was not because of Chernobyl.

Tatyana Floam
Incline Village local of 9 years