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| RIP |
Without Choice
Child miners who worked and sometimes died in total darkness,
many never reaching their teenage years;
Small undernourished boys, some born with defects of the eyes,
limbs or spine, plucked from school at an early age, seeing
daylight on Sundays only;
Victims of major disasters by explosions and other causes, when
hundreds died at a stroke; often there were several deaths in the
same household;
The lone deaths that went almost unremarked, each no less a
disaster for the family, sometimes one left without a breadwinner;
Gaunt, hollow-eyed, spent men, inhabiting fragile, blue-scarred
shells of bodies, destined to die at an early age;
Survivors who lost limbs or faculties, or suffered disfigurement;
Those whose ordeals were prolonged in later years as bed or
chair-bound invalids gasping for breath, their life threads
maintained by boxes of tablets and oxygen cylinders;
Surface workers who lost life and limb as they worked in dusty
screens or unsheltered areas, often in excesses of rain, cold and
snow;
Those who lived to attain much anticipated retirement, yet only
briefly experienced it;
Wonderful ' Mams' who selflessly went without, giving priority to
the needs of children and husbands. In harsh environments many
aged before their time and prematurely slipped away;
Often their mantles would be assumed by teenaged daughters
who became women overnight, caring for fathers and becoming
mothers to siblings, sometimes at the cost of personal
happiness;
Unsuspecting, innocent babes and guardians, the most cruelly
punished of all, dying in the ' safety ' of schoolrooms.
THEIR SUFFERANCE WAS THE TRUE PRICE OF COAL, PAID
FOR IN THE CURRENCY OF LIVES.
occurrences are ongoing. In a world of comparative plenty and
justice, they apply proper perspectives and priorities to complaints
about current everyday life.
LEST WE FORGET.
by Bill Richards.
Cambrian Colliery, Rhondda.
(Thank you, once again, Mr. Richards.)
