Comments on: A Sad, Sad Note.

A Sad, Sad Note.

jikel_morten — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:19:44 -0800

"Tell all I see them on the other side JR; I love you; It wasn't bad just went to sleep"
Sad, powerful and touching scribble.

By: pieisexactlythree

pieisexactlythree — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:23:20 -0800

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:24:38 -0800

Now that's something touching, even to a perfect stranger to the happening. I want my old principled unions back in force

By: cusack

cusack — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:25:25 -0800

By: Mave_80

Mave_80 — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:29:23 -0800

By: digaman

digaman — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:30:18 -0800

That got me too. While traveling on planes, I have often thought about what I would write to my sweetie if the cabin depressurized and we began the last descent. Thanks for a quiet and sweet FPP.

By: parallax7d

parallax7d — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:31:57 -0800

By: elkerette

elkerette — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:34:31 -0800

By: Gator

Gator — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:36:03 -0800

I have often thought about what I would write I haven't, but I am now. .

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:46:27 -0800

Miners and fishermen. Still the two occupations where you can't be sure of coming home at the end of the shift. More power to 'em.

By: billysumday

billysumday — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:46:57 -0800

This shit is so sad, dramatic, and real. Those poor people - not only do they have to greive, they have to do on the front pages of the country's newspapers, on the six o'clock news, and inevitably on a Dateline special and a made for tv movie. Let them mourn in peace. .

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:54:04 -0800

But let their story be know, let their anger vent and let the media, for once, tell a story that isn't about left saying right right to left.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:58:49 -0800

god bless

By: phredhead

phredhead — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:59:25 -0800

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:01:00 -0800

Yeah that really got to me, what with hyper-media deadening and everything, I can only imagine what the impact would be on people directly affected. Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew Where the danger is doubled and the pleasures are few Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines ...

By: Scoo

Scoo — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:02:18 -0800

So immensely sad. .

By: hal9k

hal9k — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:12:32 -0800

............

By: Oriole Adams

Oriole Adams — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:41:51 -0800

. The first time it ever occured to me to wonder what I'd write in my last moments was when I read an account of the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash. Rescuers found notes that had been scribbled in the last minutes of the downward spiral by passengers to their loved ones by some of the bodies. Gut-wrenching stuff.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:44:17 -0800

I got chills when I saw the note for the first time. But I would imagine the notes are an amazing comfort to the families.

By: Sheppagus

Sheppagus — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:57:41 -0800

By: krash2fast

krash2fast — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 10:58:39 -0800

By: Elpoca

Elpoca — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:10:14 -0800

wow. .

By: jouke

jouke — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:12:10 -0800

Made me wonder:

did they write in the dark? That would explain their scribbling.
did they have time to agree to write that they did not suffer but 'went to sleep' to protect their loved ones?

If the latter was true that would make it more moving still.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:16:07 -0800

I hope he meets the mine operators on the other side, or at least gets to drop something down on them.

By: availablelight

availablelight — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:19:00 -0800

Death by carbon monoxide poisoning is very much like going to sleep. Bodies were found in "a position of repose", leading investigators to agree that this will probably be the cause of death found during autopsies.

By: winks007

winks007 — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:28:50 -0800

Is truly is a sad situation. My condolences to the families. RIP miners.

By: cookie-k

cookie-k — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:34:57 -0800

By: marvin

marvin — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:52:50 -0800

this and those Russians in the Kursk

By: jennaratrix

jennaratrix — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:12:11 -0800

By: chris24

chris24 — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:14:52 -0800

By: tpl1212

tpl1212 — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:16:40 -0800

"It comforts me to know he didn't suffer and he wasn't bruised or crushed," [Peggy Cohen, Fred Ware's daughter] added. "I didn't need a note. I think I needed to visualize and see him." Mrs. Cohen said she opened her father's eyes at the morgue, so she could look into them one last time.

By: RubberHen

RubberHen — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:30:25 -0800

Mrs. Cohen said she opened her father's eyes at the morgue, so she could look into them one last time. Jeesus -- this is the saddest part for me to read on this page. I remember looking at , not really into my father's eyes just after he passed away. It was amazing how...how much the eyes purvey. Actually... I could not believe that the doctors did not close my father's eyelids before we were allowed in the room after their rescuscitive efforts failed.

By: Hildegarde

Hildegarde — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:45:01 -0800

By: mdn

mdn — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:56:32 -0800

man, I know I'm in a kinda winter-melancholy state these days, but that really got me. Something about the combination of smallness and universality is so moving. It's one man's tiny scrawl, a few generic words - but expressing his direct awareness that he is about to die, and his yearning to comfort his loved ones in a future that he will not know...

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 12:58:18 -0800

On a second tought I think these were ordinary decent heros. They did their ordinary but extra hard job, most likely without any political or ideological motivation and kickbacks , likely without any expectation of obtaining glory or honour, certainly with hope of having their job long enough to live a good life. They did their job and I thank them for the fact the did it without strangling me for a six figure paycheck, which they probably deserved, or hanging me on a "you're guilty of not being me" guilty trip rope. For no reason, I didn't knew anything about them or care about them, yet I miss em the most right now.

By: JB71

JB71 — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 13:04:15 -0800

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:10:11 -0800

Extraordinary. Or not. Doesn't matter. It's still incredibly touching and a profoundly generous gesture by the dying to those who would remain. I imagine their oxygen ran out before their headlights did. How on earth did the one survive? Did the rescuers just "barely" miss them? If they had arrived 1 hour sooner would it have mattered? Not looking to assign blame, I'm sure the rescuers did, quite literally, everything they could. I'm just wondering how the one had enough oxygen to be found still alive, or if the rescue effort barely failed or was doomed from the start.

By: Jikido

Jikido — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:28:43 -0800

. I hope they are in bliss.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:33:57 -0800

By: goethean

goethean — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:59:04 -0800

AskMe thread

By: JackFlash

JackFlash — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:16:14 -0800

This is sad and touching, but screw that stuff. The real issue is why are these people dead. This mine had 273 safety violations in the past two years and an injury rate that was five times that of neighboring mines. Why wasn't it shut down? Because the Bush administration replaced all of the top positions in the Mine Safety and Health Administration with cronies and mine company executives just like they did with FEMA. Bush/Cheney killed these men as surely as if they put a gun to their heads. And just in case you don't think all things are related, supreme court nominee Alito wrote a dissent against the majority in which he argued that certain mine operations were exempt from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act. If he gets on the supreme court you can count on more people dying. This administration has shown its complete and depraved indifference to the lives of Americans whether it be in Iraq, New Orleans or the hills of West Virginia.

By: VulcanMike

VulcanMike — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:16:54 -0800

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:26:04 -0800

Earlier AskMe thread

By: tzelig

tzelig — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:31:36 -0800

Jackflash has a point. This is from http://www.msha.gov/asinfo.htm The current acting assitant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration is named ironically Dye and: "Before coming to Washington, Dye served as the professional staff to two committees of the Alaska Senate-as special assistant to Alaska's lieutenant governor and as a regional and urban planner with the Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs. Dye received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1970. He graduated from the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H., in 1979. May those miners rest in peace.

By: S.C.

S.C. — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:33:10 -0800

By: airgirl

airgirl — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:53:36 -0800

By: rollbiz

rollbiz — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 16:51:13 -0800

My favorite memorial to another ridiculously dangerous job. Never talked to a miner, but I've had some great conversations with some crazy, salty seafaring folk at this bar immortalized in this book and movie. .

By: Meredith

Meredith — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 17:15:14 -0800

This actually had me in tears.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 19:19:20 -0800

Sadly, these letters left by the dying miners are common enough to almost be a tradition. This blog has three "last word" letters from mining disasters in 1907 and 1915 - gut wrenching stuff. ...and what JackFlash said... Whistleblower Warns the Bush Administration Is Cutting Back Mining Safety Regulations - a conversation with Jack Spadaro, the former head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy who was forced out of his job for trying to investigate a 2000 mining accident. Confined Space, a blog by a noted labor health & safety advocate, has the story of how inexperienced MHSA appointees were part of the communication snafu that led families to believe their loved ones were still alive. He also has a post with extensive background on how the current administration is gutting mine safety.

By: onegreeneye

onegreeneye — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 22:36:49 -0800

I had the experience of waking up quite unexpectedly in ICU, on a vent, with folks not sure I was going to live. I was immensely sad at the thought that I couldn't tell my children how they'd been the most precious, real things in my life, and how proud I was to be their mom, and how, until I had them, I had no idea one could love anyone so much or so completely. Tell your loved ones what you want to tell them NOW. You never know if you'll have the chance later.

By: aberrant

aberrant — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 13:44:10 -0800

Page must have changed; there's no reference to a note in the original link now.