God bless them for doing the work so many take for granted. What a sad story... the kind of story which makes us reflect upon our own mortality and fragile lives. We are here today, but there's no guarantee we'll be here tomorrow - nor there is guarantee we'll get the chance to say goodbye to our friends and loved ones as these courageous miners did; and for so many of us as the saying goes -- the tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
May they rest in eternal peace.
I tell that to my CCD students all the time. We are all on borrowed time, and we are blessed everytime we wake up in the morning to start a new day.
We are also blessed to have such great friends, and a faith that sustains us.