There are many ways that ordinary human beings have shown heroism in the long course of human history.
Here is another one.
Realizing that death is near, miners trapped in a West Virginia coal mine spend some of the last moments of their lives writing notes to comfort their families and the families of the other men already dead, or dying with them.
From the Detroit Free Press, via the Associated Press: “Tell all I’ll see them on the other side,” read the note found with the body of 51-year-old West Virginia mine foreman Martin Toler Jr. “It wasn’t bad. I just went to sleep. I love you Jr.”
Some of the other men wrote letters with similar messages: "Your dad didn't suffer."
Their families are struggling right now with the agony of losing these men. It is not the kind of pain that will soon abate or ever be forgotten. But all of them, even the loved ones of miners who were unable to leave final notes, now have some tiny measure of comfort: a few words of solace from among the dying men.
These men will be remembered forever as victims of a terrible mine disaster.
But in the love they demonstrated in their final moments, these men should also be remembered forever as heroes.
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