It struck me that these men loved their families so much that they didn't want them to think they died in terror.
A very comforting thought to a miners family.
A long time ago an orphaned, abandoned infant baby boy was taken in by a loving coal mining family.
The boy went to work in the local mines when he was twelve. At first he cared for the horses. Later he entered the mines where he would hand load coal for the next fifty years.
Before he was eighteen, he was involved in a mining accident where the roof caved in where he was working. An older immigrant miner who had no family in this country pulled the young miner from the cave in but died as a result of injuries he received during his rescue.
When the young miner turned eighteen he took the last name of the miner who saved his life.
The young miner was my grandfather. And because of the bravery of the older miner who rescued him there are a whole lot of Ramcats scattered about this great country.
Some are doctors, scientists, engineers, accounts, business owners, military and yes some are coal miners.
May God bless the families of the fallen miners.
These men knew how to be men.
What a story and what a blessed legacy!