Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Jane and family:
I was very saddened to learn today of Blaine's death. I know that you and I have both lost a friend, a husband, and a man who was to me, an amalgam of my father and my brother. He worked with me on many of my mine cases prior to Randy's passing and all of my mine cases afterwards. He was a man who knew what was right and never waived from the right, he was a walking tutorial on MSHA regs and mine management, he was an expert who accepted the thanks of the families I represented and expressed his concern for them, to them, like a local pastor. Those who didn't know Blaine are less whole for that loss of opportunity.
Blaine helped many, many families of seriously injured or killed coal miners have a respectable and financially secure future. What was so fulfilling was to watch his bashful acceptance of that accolade every time I reminded him about it. During finals of one of his semesters at the law school, he holed up with me and my partner in Logan because he was needed to obtain justice during a trial for a seriously injured young miner; his persistence was instrumental in that case, one that established a specific interpretation of an MSHA regulation, by MSHA, in the manner Blaine said it should be interpreted.
The Blaine Myers stories of triumph for injured or killed miners' families could fill volumes. The reason those stories are significant is that they demonstrate the true humanity with which he approached each task. I have missed him since his retirement, not as an expert, but as an exemplar brother figure and a friend. I will always regret not seeing him in recent times, because each time I did see or talk with him, it was like getting a re-charge.
I know that the loss you and your family is feeling is much more than even the loss and regret that I feel, so I know it is very hard. However, just remember that Blaine would be saying, "yes, it is hard, but we must press on." There was, and always will be, just one Blaine Myers. I am so sad that he is not physically with you anymore; but remember that his spirit and his values always will be with you, and if we are lucky, with the world at large as well.
If there is anything that you need, please let me know.
Thoughts and prayers,
Mark Moreland
