Coal dust embedded in miners' veins

Denver Post ^ | 15 Jan 06 | Sharon Sherman

[rellimpank]

"In the sweet bye and bye, we shall meet on that beautiful shore."

I last heard that old hymn at my father's funeral and thought I had made my peace at last with the specter of death that had haunted my childhood. I thought so until Monday, Jan. 3, when a coal mine exploded in West Virginia, and in my heart.

Suddenly, I was 8 years old, a third-grader in the six-room schoolhouse

[rellimpank]

---better than usual article on coal mining--

[HangnJudge]

I have eight generations of family from West Virginia

and have long memories of the Tallmansville community
south of Buckhannon
from visits into early childhood through middle age
I've not work the coal but have crawled in their mines

God has blessed these people in ways "Flatlanders" may never understand

[penowa]

Thank you for posting this. I never would have seen it if you hadn't. That coal dust is not just embedded in miners' veins. It is a part of all of us who grew up in deep mining communities.

[RoadTest]

My wife's family is from Southern Illinois. She had twin great Uncles and one of them was crushed to death by big rock falling out of the ceiling of the mine.