Nadezhda Nikolaevna Timoshenko lived in the village of Borshchyovka from 1969 to 1986. This village was just twelve kilometres from Chernobyl. This is her story about what happened that day and afterwards.
"It was a very warm and sunny day. We could hear some birds singing in the sky. We had no idea about the terrible disaster. We found out what happened only early evening. A friend's son came to our village in a car with a radio. So we heard about the disaster on this radio. The people in our village did not panic at all. They gave us special medicine. Suddenly it started raining. I was outside in this rain. Next morning I saw some strange red spots on my skin. I was afraid, and then they told me that the rain was radioactive, and the red spots on my face would disappear soon. It was some time before the spots went away.
"They took us away from the village on 4 May. The children left the week before. Six buses arrived at the village to take