Maude Stanley
Maude Stanley is the first character in this book as she is the voice of the first poem. She is the widowed wife of the man killed by the explosion in the coal mines. She is filled with grief and explains the horrors the women and wives have to deal with. Although their husbands go down into the mines, they carry a burden with them as they try to ease the pressure of the men. She helped sew together one of her husband's clothes.
Ted
Ted is the husband of Maude Stanley and he is killed in the coal mine explosion. He was a hard worker and ordinary person. He had a hole in his shirt that was repaired with his wife's blue dress, which he didn't like but wore anyway. This was how he was identified when the bodies were being carried around.
Betty Rose
A wife in the first poem. Her husband had died in the explosion, named Willy, and she recognized him by the markings on his ear. It was otherwise impossible to recognize the men as they had been covered in black soot and ashes.
Willy
Willy is the husband of Betty Rose and tragically dies in the explosion at the coal mine in West Virginia. He had a notched part in his ear, which he got during his youth. When he was a child, Willy started playing with a dog's food and it nipped him in the ear. This was his identifying feature when he passed away.
Desley Salyer
Desley Salyer is another woman in West Virginia widowed due to the explosion at Winco No. 9. She was married to a man named Tom Junior, who she grieved over very much, and was only able to recognize him by his toes.
Tom Junior
Tom Junior perishes in the explosion at Winco No. 9 and was married to Desley Salyer prior to his death. He wore special steel-toed boots that he managed to save up for with his meager wages. These boots protected his toes from the soot and fire of the coal explosion when he died, allowing his wife Desley Salyer to identify him amidst the pile of bodies.
Papa
Papa is the name given to an Italian immigrant because it is from the perspective of his grieving daughter. In Italy he was a master stonecutter and an exceptional architect that was admired throughout his town and neighboring towns. He came to America with the dream of replicating this success and trying to create art out of the stone he cut. However, when he arrived, he was forced to work as a coal-miner. Papa barely made enough for him and his family to scrape by and one day the mine he was working in caved in, killing him and his dreams.
