Today is an incredibly tragic day in my wonderful home state. The biggest mine disaster in the US since 1984 occurred yesterday. 25 people have been confirmed dead, and 4 are still missing in a mine explosion on the border of Boone/Raleigh counties in West Virginia. This happened in the county where my husband is from, the county where his father is still a coal miner. My husband himself works as a surveyor on a mining job--I've never had something like this hit me so personally.

My heart goes out to all those directly affected, to those miners themselves, to everyone involved. I pray now that as the names are released, I recognize none of them. Being that this is a small county, and a large mine, and that's what half the people that live there do, I fear that will not be the case.