A Sad, Sad Note.

January 6, 2006 9:19 AM

"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.
posted by jikel_morten (49 comments total)

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posted by pieisexactlythree at 9:23 AM on January 6, 2006

Now that's something touching, even to a perfect stranger to the happening.

I want my old principled unions back in force
posted by elpapacito at 9:24 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by cusack at 9:25 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by Mave_80 at 9:29 AM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by digaman at 9:30 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by parallax7d at 9:31 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by elkerette at 9:34 AM on January 6, 2006

I have often thought about what I would write

I haven't, but I am now.

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posted by Gator at 9:36 AM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by three blind mice at 9:46 AM on January 6, 2006

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.

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posted by billysumday at 9:46 AM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by elpapacito at 9:54 AM on January 6, 2006

god bless
posted by pyramid termite at 9:58 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by phredhead at 9:59 AM on January 6, 2006

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 ...
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:01 AM on January 6, 2006

So immensely sad.

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posted by Scoo at 10:02 AM on January 6, 2006

............
posted by hal9k at 10:12 AM on January 6, 2006

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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.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:41 AM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by fenriq at 10:44 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by Sheppagus at 10:57 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by krash2fast at 10:58 AM on January 6, 2006

Made me wonder:

1. did they write in the dark? That would explain their scribbling.
2. 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.
posted by jouke at 11:12 AM on January 6, 2006

I hope he meets the mine operators on the other side, or at least gets to drop something down on them.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:16 AM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by availablelight at 11:19 AM on January 6, 2006

Is truly is a sad situation. My condolences to the families.
RIP miners.
posted by winks007 at 11:28 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by cookie-k at 11:34 AM on January 6, 2006

this and those Russians in the Kursk
posted by marvin at 11:52 AM on January 6, 2006

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posted by jennaratrix at 12:12 PM on January 6, 2006

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posted by chris24 at 12:14 PM on January 6, 2006

"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.
posted by tpl1212 at 12:16 PM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by RubberHen at 12:30 PM on January 6, 2006

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posted by Hildegarde at 12:45 PM on January 6, 2006

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...
posted by mdn at 12:56 PM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by elpapacito at 12:58 PM on January 6, 2006

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posted by JB71 at 1:04 PM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by Ynoxas at 2:10 PM on January 6, 2006

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I hope they are in bliss.
posted by Jikido at 2:28 PM on January 6, 2006

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posted by trip and a half at 2:33 PM on January 6, 2006

AskMe thread
posted by goethean at 2:59 PM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by JackFlash at 3:16 PM on January 6, 2006

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posted by VulcanMike at 3:16 PM on January 6, 2006

Earlier AskMe thread
posted by dhartung at 3:26 PM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by tzelig at 3:31 PM on January 6, 2006

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posted by S.C. at 3:33 PM on January 6, 2006

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posted by airgirl at 3:53 PM on January 6, 2006

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.

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posted by rollbiz at 4:51 PM on January 6, 2006

This actually had me in tears.
posted by Meredith at 5:15 PM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:19 PM on January 6, 2006

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.
posted by onegreeneye at 10:36 PM on January 6, 2006

Page must have changed; there's no reference to a note in the original link now.
posted by aberrant at 1:44 PM on January 7, 2006