When my mom was alive and living at Liberty Village in Peru, once a week I would do her grocery shopping and then stop by for a visit. If Mom wasn't in her apartment, I could always find her playing cards in the rec room.

With a mom's pride, she would introduce me to her friends.

"This is David, my youngest. He's a school teacher in Ottawa," was always her standard.

One day one of her card partners asked me what I was teaching. I said, "Today's lesson was about the Cherry Mine Disaster."

I'll never forget the look on her face as she set the cards down.

"I lost my father and my mother in the Cherry Mine."

I didn't know what to say.

"My father was trapped that day. My mom stood watch over that mine day and night, waiting for Dad to come home. She finally got sick that winter and died. I lost my mom and my dad."

Since that meeting I have taken special care to share that story with my students when I introduce them to the Cherry Mine Disaster. I want them to understand the real story of that fateful day is the story of literally hundreds of men, women and children who were impacted by what is recorded as one of the worst industrial accidents in American history.

I start with the basic story of more than 400 men and boys who went to work that day, Nov. 13, 1909, for the St. Paul Coal Company. I explain in detail the miscommunications and bad decisions that caused almost 240 of those men to become trapped when a fire started in a coal car carrying hay for the mules used in the mine.

Eventually, 238 bodies would be recovered from the mine. The last one wasn't brought to the surface until July 10 of the next year. Along with those deaths was the unfathomable loss of 12 rescuers who became trapped on the lift system, again through miscommunication, and were burned to death at the second level. Their smoldering bodies were raised to the surface in front of family and friends.

What I really try to share with my students is the story of individuals — men who headed to work that cold fall morning and never came home.

John Bundy, the mine manager and father of eight kids, organized the relief efforts and eventually died on the burning cage. Albert Buckle, 15 years old, survived the fire but lost his brother, Daniel Holafchak, who, along with 19 other men, barricaded themselves in on the second level to escape the poisonous gas caused by the fire. These men were miraculously rescued a week later, but sadly Dan died two days after the rescue.

The story I feel most connected to is that of Dominic Formento, who worked in Cherry as a grocer.

When alarms sounded at the mine, Dominic ran to help. Sadly, the young father of two children was one of the men killed on the cage disaster. This weekend when I head up to Cherry to pay my respects to the men who lost their lives 100 years ago, I will stop by the Ladd cemetery and spend a moment at Dominic's grave.

• DAVE NEPS of Ottawa teaches at Shepherd Middle School and is an avid outdoorsman. He can be reached through The Times or by e-mailing lonnyc@mywebtimes.com.

Neps provided the following list of sources for those wanting to do more research on the Cherry Mine disaster:

Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics (PDF Version): 
www.archive.org/details/reportoncherrymi00illi%20Internet%20Archive:

Fiftieth Anniversary Pamphlet: www.archive.org/details/memorialoffiftie00demi

Eight Days in a Burning Mine: www.msha.gov/century/mag/magcvr.asp

Raymond Tutaj's YouTube Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ7HSCuelBw

Raymond Tutaj's Cherry Mine Web site: http://guitarjourney.tripod.com/cherrycoalminedisaster/