The Black Shadow of Chernobyl

 

The Black Shadow of Chernobyl

            I was a little girl, only eight years old, when the catastrophic nuclear accident happened in Ukraine on April 26, 1986. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine released large quantities of radiation into the atmosphere, which spread over the Western USSR and Europe.  I was not mature enough at the time to realize the serious impact this would have on my family. I remember it like it happened yesterday. The federal enforcement made all the men under the age of sixty five years old to go to Chernobyl and help clean up this terrible disaster. A lot of men simply just ran away because they all knew about the health issues, and how their lives could be changed forever if they came back alive at all. They did not touch men who had more than three children. My father was a young forty year old man, with unfortunately only two children, so he qualified for service in Chernobyl.    

          On one warm summer day my father left to Chernobyl, leaving my mother and me very scared that we would never see him again. Never in the back of my father’s mind, did he ever think about skipping out from his service commitment, like some of my friends fathers did.  I remember the day when the federal Russian enforcement officers took my father.  At that time, I had no idea where or why they took him because the officers said nothing.  I just remember all the sadness in my heart as though he left for war.  I did not see my father for many months, and wondered why he could not be with us.  My mother told me he was helping a very important mission for our family and the country; otherwise, he would be at home.  Meanwhile, as I was waiting for my father to come back, I saw a lot of people without eyebrows, eyelashes or were bald. The government evacuated over three hundred thousand people from the most contagious areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. People migrated everywhere including to my city, Kharkov.

          Eventually, I found out that my mother had aborted her child because of the possibility of health risks caused by radiation exposure.  My mother was very sad for a while after my father returned, and I could not understand why.  The doctors advised her not to keep the baby, concerned it would be unhealthy or have birth defects. My mother ended up aborting her child not knowing what terrible illnesses could happen. Aborting a child is a very tough decision for any parents. Even though my parents never talked about this, I can imagine how hard it was for them to make this decision.

            My father finally came home safe and sound, but my mother was very concerned because he was exposed to high levels of radiation.  Furthermore, my family knew about two hundred emergency workers that worked with my father that were diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome; some even died shortly after returning home.    The doctors continued to monitor my father’s health very closely for the next couple of years. When I grew up, I started to notice a lot of my father’s close friends and neighbors who helped at Chernobyl had died. My father now goes to the hospital every year for a month for a check-up.  The doctors at the hospital perform preventive treatment to reduce the possibility of health issues caused from radiation exposure.

        Twenty five years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, the areas around Chernobyl are still abandoned. Now they attract a lot of tourists and scientists who are curious about what actually happened. Chernobyl even has a ghost town called Pripyat, where fifty thousand workers used to live. I am very appreciative that this terrible story is behind us, and my dad ended up having good health, except for the psoriasis and an occasional pressure headache.  He is a happy sixty five year old man who never has time to be sick. He is so busy taking care of my mother, doing home improvement projects and taking care of the yard.