. >> reporter: but svitlana melnyichuk on the left didn't see the light. didn't believe in breakthroughs. she brought her daughter, myroslava, while her adult daughter stayed home. svitlana lost her husband, yuriy, a civilian building inspector, who volunteered the day after putin invaded. svitlana mixed homemade explosives for the troops as her husband sent text messages from the front. svitlana told us -- >> reporter: "pictures started coming in. good morning, darling. with a photo of a flower taken right from the trench. it was spring already. right from the trench." the photos thrilled her because yuriy had always worked too much at the expense of the family, she thought. but after the invasion, family was all he cared about. his revelation lifted their lives. then he was dead, and her rage is almost like blindness. "i became very distant and angry, and i kept all the sorrow inside. i didn't share it." nathan schmidt was keeping his sorrow inside when in 2019, a friend invited him on a climbing trip. schmidt wasn't a mountaineer. he's afraid of heights.