For whom these bells tolled
Miners mourned at six funerals; 3 more set today
PHILIPPI, W. Va. -- The funerals began early in the day yesterday, so many of them having been scheduled in West Virginia's coal mining towns.
While an untold number of people watched on live television last week, as 12 miners died in the Sago mine explosion, for the most part the funerals were private.
Only those who knew the miners and live in these coal-mining communities were allowed to join the families to grieve. Police created a ring around two funeral homes here, asking the media not to intrude.
Almost 100 mourners, hugging one another and offering condolences, had gathered to remember Jackie Weaver.
The 52-year-old section electrician, who spent 26 years working in the mines, would write ''Jesus saves" in the coal dust of his mine car as he and colleagues descended, said his cousin, Scotty Felton, 42, of Philippi.
''He was a wonderful man, with a wonderful sense of humor," said Melanie Hayhurst, 44, of Fairmont, who said she had known Weaver for about 15 years.
Hayhurst said Weaver's family planned to bury him next to his son, who died as a child in a motorcycle accident.
The surviving miner, 26-year-old Randal McCloy Jr., was hospitalized in Morgantown, after he was transferred late Saturday from Pittsburgh, where he had undergone special treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning.
He had been in a medically induced coma to allow his brain time to heal, and while hospital officials said in a statement yesterday that his sedation had been stopped, they said it would take awhile for the medication to clear his system.
''It has been very difficult to allow him to awaken, although that is our hope today," Dr. Larry Roberts, the head of McCloy's treatment team at West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital, said yesterday.
Roberts said McCloy has shown some sign of improvement since he returned to West Virginia from three days at a Pittsburgh hospital, but that his condition remains critical.
The mine accident hit hardest in Philippi, where three of the miners lived. Most of the 3,000 residents knew the 12 victims, or were related to them, or knew someone who knew them.
''My daddy worked in the mines and I worked in the mines all my life," said Jim Spotlowe, 69.
''We all know ;each other," Spotlowe said.''We're all family here."
When asked whether he knew any of the miners personally, Pete Sandridge, an employee of Wright Funeral Home in Philippi, he held up four fingers, and his eyes filled with tears.
First was the funeral for Martin Toler Jr., at 11 a.m. in Tesla. Then Weaver's service at 1 p.m. in Philippi. Then people mourned David Lewis, Jesse Jones, and Alva Bennett an hour later, in Philippi and in Buckhannon.
Jerry Lee Groves, 56, was the last; his memorial service, planned for late in the day, was in Cleveland, W. Va.
Three more funerals are scheduled for today, then two for tomorrow. One remains unplanned.
Near the mine, which has been sealed off by federal and state regulators, more than 100 people gathered yesterday morning at the Sago Baptist Church, which became a gathering place for families during the vigil for the trapped miners.
The Rev. Wease Day asked worshipers not to look for someone to blame in the catastrophe.
Instead, Day said, worshipers should imagine how they would spend their last 10 final hours. 