Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
A week has passed since the formal search ended for six miners in the Crandall Canyon Mine, yet not much "closure" has come for their families.
They still don't know for sure what happened. Most haunting: did the miners die instantly under the rubble of the unstable mountain, as we hope happened, or did they somehow survive the initial jolt only to succumb later? It won't be an easy question to answer. Closure in that sense will likely be long in coming.
That causes our collective hearts to ache for those who have lost loved ones.
KSL prays they can find a degree of solace in the various memorial services that are being held. And we hope they genuinely feel the support of the broader community.
The six lost miners, as well as the three rescuers who died in the courageous effort to find them, deserve a lasting memorial. Physically, it might be some appropriate kind of monument. The most fitting tribute, though, would be a broader adherence to reasonable and effective safety standards in all mines where men and women work underground.
That may not bring complete closure, but at least the families will know their loved ones didn't die in vain.
