The family finally arrives at the apartment. The door easily gives in and memories come flooding back. "This is the frame of my crib. My father made it himself, by hand," she said.

Coming Home to Chernobyl's Desolation Zone, photo gallery by VOA's Diana Markosian

The morning of the accident, Ivanna’s crib stood below an open window. No one knew of the explosion or the radiation leak, and no one said anything. That morning Nadiya had sent her son off to school and was set to wash the windows and paint the balcony in preparation for May Day celebrations.

Having visited their own apartment, the family goes next door. After the evacuation, they lost contact with their neighbors, so they scratch their telephone number in Kyiv on the wall - just in case.

Ivanna searches for her birth records in Pripyat’s Maternity Ward without success.. But her brother Yevhen finds his teacher’s grade book in the building where he went to school.

"Here I am, here I am ! Makarevych: 3, 3, 3, 5," he said.

Even the date of the accident April 26, 1986 has been entered: Makarevych, Yevhen - present.

At the end of the day, these Pripyat evacuees stand alone among the abandoned buildings of a ghost town. They came here with the intention of leaving behind their fears. But it appears they only re-opened old wounds that have held them captive for a quarter of a century.