Wow Colleen, that's quite a cooincidence... my father worked at the mine for approximately 30 years until it shut down in the 90's. He was quite lucky because he was given an early retirement package that only people 55 and older were offered... he was 54 when the mine closed but turned 55 while they were deciding on the retirement packages and because of that he qualified... just under the buzzer.
It's a small world after all isn't it, my father probably knew yours, who knows they could have been friends, you never know!

-John-