Lucy went out on the front porch where five year old Hattie Mae was sitting on the porch swing, her cherubic face framed by braids going just past her shoulders. Her little feet barely touched the floor of the porch, but her tip toes managed to push the swing. Hattie Mae was singing ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ to the rhythm of the swing. Lucy said, “Honey, I brought you some green beans to snap. Could you please fix them while you swing?”
“Sure mama, bring them here,” Hattie Mae said as she put the brakes on the swing. She changed her tune to ‘Pitter Patter Pit, I love to hear the rain come down’ as she snapped the beans in beat to the tune.
Her mama went back in the house to the kitchen to work on supper. Scrinch, ka blam, the screen door slammed behind Lucy and then echoed down the holler. The sound of Timmy John chopping wood wafted up from the wood pile and surrounded Hattie Mae like the promise of a warm winter fire after a heavy snow.
Hattie Mae heard her sister, Karen Lynn in the kitchen peeling potatoes and asking her mother how long they had before their dad got home.
“Why, Karen Lynn I reckon he will be here about half past five, like always. What are you thinking?” her mama asked.
Karen Lynn was ten years old and was just about the smartest and prettiest person Hattie Mae knew! Karen Lynn was a short person, being just a few inches taller than Hattie Mae and had blond hair in a ponytail and striking blue eyes. She didn’t boss Hattie Mae around like some big sisters would, but liked to, as she put it, ‘reason with her’.
Karen Lynn, peeling her last potato, started cutting them up in thirds and set them on the stove in a pot of water to boil. “There, daddy said he would help me set out the seedlings tonight and it is the first year I will plant marigolds around the garden. I am right anxious to see if these hear flars (flowers) will keep away the bugs.”
Her mama said, with a twinkle in her eyes, “You got yore chores done, go get those flats ready for yore daddy!”
Karen Lynn said, “Thanks mama,” as she flew out the door..Scritch Ka-blam! No sneaking out that screen door! Just the way mama liked it!
The next minute there was a terrifying explosion and the ground shook so that people were knocked off of their feet! The chickens were squawking and flyin’ all around, the cows and horses were stompin’ in the barn and as soon as they got their wits about them, all of the kids came a runnin’ up to the house! John Joseph ran to mama and said,”You go on down to the mines, mama. I can keep an eye on things here.” He was seventeen and big as a man with broad shoulders and stood about 5’ 10” with red hair and freckles.”
She looked at him grateful-like, grabbed her shawl and medicine bag and took off for the coal mine. Lucy Mae Higgins was not a trained physician, but she was the one people in this holler depended on with her herbs and potions. She had learned everything from her great grandmother and with her kids and the community, had had plenty of practice. She didn’t know what she would find and just prayed that her husband and all of the other miners had gotten out safely.
Karen Lynn walked silently beside her mother. She was learnin’ mountain medicine too and always went with her mother to help. Right now, she was scared for her daddy and all of the other men. She knew with an explosion like that, that the mineshaft might have collapsed and some of them could have been trapped and hurt or even dead.
When they got to the mine, there was a great hubbub. Karen Lynn’s worst fears had come true. The mineshaft had collapsed and she couldn’t see her daddy anywhere.
There were people running everywhere and scrambling.
All of the men who weren’t trapped in the mine were digging furiously to make a way to get to the trapped men as quickly as possible. One man was using a bulldozer and the rest had shovels.
The women were bringing old sheets and such and working together to tear them up into makeshift bandages.
One of the women rallied some teen boys to putting wood across some stumps for temporary hospital tables. Lucy would have to stabilize the wounded so they could make it into town to the hospital.
Lucy knew that her sons, Carl Ray and Timmy John, would be by her side soon to help. She figured they could help carry any men who couldn’t walk out of the mine.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Carl Ray was 20 and had been out working in the fields, getting them plowed up with old Susan the mule. Timmy John had stopped his wood chopping to go get him. When they got there, they got into the elevator, going down the mine shaft.
A shout went up from the men digging!
Past the falling dust, coughing men started crawling out. The diggers dropped their shovels and helped support the men who were getting out. They had gotten through!
Five of the men walked out with only minor injuries. They came over to Lucy for some patching up after they checked in with the boss and told him the state of affairs and got their names checked off of the list. Lucy had Karen Lynn washing up their wounds to get all of the dirt out of them and then she applied the mercurochrome to the wounds and wrapped them up to protect them.
Carl Ray and Timmy John, along with some other young men went in to bring out whoever they could find. They worked as fast as possible as no one knew if there would be other explosions. There were three teams of boys with stretchers. Carl Ray came upon a man turned over, face to the ground and gently turned him face up. His right arm was split open, his hand up on a rock ten feet away and his left leg turned at an ungodly angle. As Carl Ray turned him over, the man let out a huge sigh and was gone.
Carl, with tears streaming down his face said, “Leave him. Let’s get the ones who can make it.” He said a shaky prayer, committing him into the Lord’s hands and continued to the next man.
Timmy John noticed as he passed by that it was their closest neighbor, Bart Jennings. Why, he had just spoken with him this mornin and now… He was gone. That sent a shock through his body, realizing how serious this was and how important it was to help these men as quickly as possible.
The next man they came to was standing up with a dazed look on his face and an obvious broken arm. Timmy asked him if he was able to walk and the man looked right through him as if he didn’t see him. Carl Ray said, “He can’t hear you. He’s been deafened by the explosion and he is probably in shock. Put your arm around his waist and guide him out to mama. I will keep looking. Get back as soon as you can.”
Timmy John stayed with his mama long enough to make sure she was ok treating the man and that she would have another neighbor help her set the arm. Then he went back to helping Carl Ray.
One of the other teams had come to another cave in and could hear men yelling for help behind the cave in. Men with their shovels got to work immediately. Time was so important because they were working against the elements: cave-ins, breathing coal dust, carbon monoxide fumes, and possibly undetonated charges. They broke through after ten minutes of digging and the majority of the men were able to walk out, some helping their fellow miners and some yelling for the stretchers. Forty -seven men were rescued from that area. Thirty-eight were able to walk out and nine were carried out on stretchers. Eleven men lost their lives.
Lucy and Karen Lynn and the other women bandaging up the wounded were working so hard they didn;t have time to worry about their loved ones, just thinking about what to do to save these neighbors and friends with the primitive tools they had to work with. After about an hour, they could hear the ambulances screaming as they wound up the mountain road with all of its switchbacks. As soon as the ambulances got there, Lucy talked with the EMT’s about who to take first and who could just go back home after they double- checked Lucy’s work. “Ma’am you did a fine job of helping these men and made our work easier and I can point out a couple of men who would not have made it without you,” one of the EMT’s said, praising Lucy.
Lucy was glad her gifts had helped, but now she wanted to find her husband. With her heart pounding, she turned to walk away, since all of her patients were in capable hands and looked right into the weary, but twinkling eyes of Earl Alfred, her husband peeking out from his coal dust covered face! Lucy started crying as she hugged him hard enough to make him yelp! “Where are you hurt Earl Alfred,” she asked?
“Lucy I have been watchin’ you for the last half hour and thinkin’ how lucky I am to have a wonderful woman like you! You cook and clean and heal folks and most of all, you love me,” her husband said. “I have a cut on my leg, but I just have been standin here admirin you!”
Lucy grabbed the mercurochrome and set to work cleaning out the large gash after checking it carefully for foreign objects. Earl Alfred tried to be brave, but it hurt like the dickens! Lucy told him while she worked, “I love you Earl Alfred and you are my hero. You risk your life every day fer me and the kids. Thank you!”
While they were wrapping things up and cleaning things up, the preacher and his wife walked around talking to folks. Reverend Henry Smith and his wife, Loretta were explaining to everyone that a tent would be set up in this spot outside of the mine and they would have the wake here for the dead altogether instead of each family individually in their homes. Nobody would be working in the mines or in the fields, so the men would be building coffins on site and the women would all be cooking and setting up for the meal.
“First order of business is to get the tent set up,” the reverend said. “Next we will set up tables for the dead to be laid on and have the women cleaning them up and preparing them for burial. If you need help with your family member, my wife Loretta will be on hand to find someone to help you. This afternoon, we ask that the teen boys in each family will bring shovels and dig the graves in the company graveyard. This has been a very sad day and my heart goes out to each of you.