I was looking at the stories late last night, one on MSNBC in which one of the men's brother quoted from a note his brother left in the mine. He interpreted it to say "(I'll) see them on the other side..."
Photo of Letter From 51-year-old miner Martin Toler Jr
Looking at the photo of the note, I saw it differently. I suppose it's because of working in icu, and watching so many of the patients cross over after having long happy discussions with friends or family members (who, we'd been told by other family members) had died previously, I see that note for exactly what it says..
"I see them on the other side."
I believe he was seeing those he loved who had crossed over before him. I truly believe they were gathered around him, come to take him home.
Now.. I found something else that I thought was pretty neat on a Foxnews page.
Maybe I'm just reaching, but humor me for a minute. Click the link above and when that page loads for you, look at the photos in almost the center of that page, the first being a woman with a child, the second a miner..
The third photo in the top row is the one that caught my eye. It's of a couple of rescue workers and the medical examiner moving a body of one of the miners out of the mine. Click on that thumbnail and look at the larger photo.
At first I saw 4 swirly looking smudges of light, but then I made a screen shot, and opened it in PSP and made it 200 percent larger. Then I counted the swirls of light.. you can see them even in the small photo...they're overlapping and if you count them, see if you come up with 13, like I did.
If I'm not mistaken...there were 13 dead miners in all. The 12 who were deep in the mine, and the first one they found, a single miner - who was discovered a short time after the explosion the first day.
Maybe I am reaching. But things like this bring me comfort.
Posted by juel at January 6, 2006 08:51 AM