and one just three days before the Aug. 6 collapse. The reality was, the men were "deep" mining beneath a mountain of rock, 2,000 feet below the surface at times. A bounce meant the mountain was shifting as workers emptied veins of coal.

Corey calls mining an "honorable" job, but, scared of the same fate that claimed his father and grandfather, he'd now rather work in a fast-food restaurant for minimum wage than dig for coal.

Wendy Black and families of other Crandall Canyon victims are suing for more answers into what happened and why. If she's successful, her lawsuit may also yield damages that will take the place of Dale's income.

Recent reports from the Department of Labor and the Mine Safety and Health Administration have provided some information, with finger-pointing directed at MSHA, at engineers who approved the mine plan and at the mine operator.

With the lawsuit comes renewed anger. And when Black gets mad, she talks to Dale.

"'Why did you have to leave me by myself?"' she asks him. "He was the strong person in the family."

They used to golf together. They went four-wheeling a lot. They lived for visits to the desert.

Dale loved to hunt and at about this time of year he'd be getting ready for that. Hunting would take him away from home for days at a time, but he'd always return. To Black, it feels at times a little like he's just gone away in the name of the hunt, and that he'll be back.

"I think about him constantly," she said. "It's almost like he's really not gone."

Weekends are the worst. They almost never spent one at home.

"When he was done with work, we were gone," Black said.

That's how it was since 1984, when Dale went to work in the Crandall Canyon Mine. His headstone also reads, "Dale jumped into life and never touched bottom."

Staying put, moving on

Dale is buried next to the grave of his father, Roscoe, , which he visited the night before Aug. 16, Wendy Black said.

There were other unusual things that happened before or on that day. Dale usually rode with someone to work. He drove himself that day. He never wore a "flak" jacket, a type of body armor worn by bull riders — but he did that day. And for some reason, he left his lunch bucket at home.

Dale died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Two others died and several were injured.

Unlike the families of the six miners Dale was trying to rescue, Black was able to touch her husband one more time and say "goodbye" to his physical self.