TWILIGHT, W.Va. -- Lawrence Richmond has taken chances all of his life.
As a soldier in World War II and an underground coal miner for almost 30 years, Richmond, 85, said he doesn't mind being the last to stay in the area once known as Lindytown in Boone County.
"Home to me this late in life means to me just as much as that coal does to Massey," Richmond said of Massey Energy's decision to start mountaintop removal at the Twilight mine site.
The Richmonds, along with their two sons, Larry, 55, and Roger, 66, and their grandchildren, are the only ones to stay in the otherwise abandoned mining town.
In recent months, their neighbors - families who can trace their lineage back several generations - have packed up their belongings, had their houses boarded up and moved out of town to make way for Massey's surface mine.
Now, the couple is all but sandwiched in between mining operations.
In front of their home, the land is owned by Horizon, a company contracted by Patriot Coal. Behind the house is the Twilight mine.
Despite mountaintop removal taking place a short distance from their home, both Richmond and his wife, Quinnie, 84, said they're not concerned about their decision. They said they know the risks.
"I guess we'll try to endure the (coal) dust," he said.
Very fine particles get through the house's crevices and often the dust filters inside, they said.
They admit the dust bothers them some but not enough to move.
They do their best to get around it - spending limited time outside, covering the couches with sheets and routinely power washing the exterior of their modest home.
"You can't build airtight houses," he said. "Well, unless you're a millionaire, I guess."
Richmond said his family was offered $175,000 by Massey to leave their home of 63 years. The company also offered him, among other options, free rent on a nicer home further up the hollow, he said.
Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwater said the offers were made as a safety precaution - and at the request of those living in the hollow.
"Several people in the community approached us about buying the houses," he said. "We offered them a real good market value for their homes and most of them accepted.
"We basically did it as an extra safety precaution for the area. We didn't have to do it."
Nevertheless, Richmond and his family chose to stay and, in return, accepted $25,000 from the coal company.
Richmond calls it "hush money" - that is, in the event their health takes a turn for the worst.
"We've all got to go sometime," he said. "We just don't know when it's going to come.
"But I think we've had a pretty good life here."
Both Richmond and his wife were born and raised near Whitesville, on the borders of Boone and Raleigh counties.
Richmond, after finishing school, moved to Baltimore to work for a manufacturer of B22 bombers.
Soon after World War II broke out, he was drafted and served in the military for three years.
After being discharged in 1946, Richmond returned to West Virginia, where he found work at a coal mine. His father had worked in the mines and helped him get the job.
Within a year's time, he married Quinnie, who worked as a clerk in coal company stores, and acquired property in Lindytown and then built their current home.
"I never missed a payday," Richmond said. "And I made a pretty good living."
He remembers when miners could smoke underground.
"That was before they considered all mines gaseous," he said, with a chuckle.
Richmond said it was rare to see mountaintop removal, or strip jobs, as he calls them.
Once a small but bustling mining town with neat homes, freshly cut lawns and fine landscaping, Lindytown barely exists today.
The Richmond pale yellow house is bright, cheerful and well-kept.
Inside, the house is simple - with white walls, wood trim, walls of family photos and an old-fashioned kitchen - and always tidy.
The house is a sharp departure from the rest of the abandoned homes in the sad-looking neighborhood.
Not many people visit the area, known now as Twilight, much less drive through it, with the exception of the mail delivery person.
"It's a ghost town now, just like the ones out West," Richmond said.
But lonely they're not.
Richmond and his wife admit they miss their neighbors; many of them were nice and dependable, they said.
"We had neighbors, but no one that was really close friends, not like family," Richmond said. "I mean, we would talk; they were good neighbors.
"But as old as I am, I'm not too concerned about it. So far, it hasn't bothered us too much."
Most people he worked with or they knew have since died, he said.
"It really doesn't make no difference to me," he said. "All of the friends I had - most of them are gone to happy hunting ground."
Even the prospect of rocks tumbling down the hillside doesn't faze the couple, who both remain fairly active despite their age.
"If a blast goes off, we could have fly-off rock come down and hit the house," Richmond said, looking out the kitchen window.
At the top of the mountain behind their house, where Massey's surface mining operation is taking place, sits a large rock that looks rather threatening.
Quinnie, who doesn't do as much of the talking, simply points to the boulder, shakes her head and puts her hand over her mouth.
She said she tries not to think about that possibility.
Despite their decision to stay, the couple agreed they're not going to stand in the way of progress either.
"That one strip job is feeding a lot of babies," he said of Massey's operation. "It's clothing a lot of babies. It's sending a lot of kids to school.
"I wouldn't want to stand in the way of someone feeding and clothing their families."
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