It’s been hard: Families remember the men in the mine

They came in small groups to the Pike River memorial at Atarau — an area fenced off, the perimeter filled with monuments, crosses, and plant pots.

It was a place they had come to many times over the past decade — the mine itself is not far up the road.

The Pike families carried flowers to lay beside plaques bearing the names of sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, friends.

Stephen Rose, who lost his stepson, 31-year-old Stu Mudge, said it did not feel as if 10 years had passed.

“It feels like three or four months ago on a day like this . . . we’ve gone such a long way in 10 years but we feel like we have only just begun.

“I was thinking this morning that seven years ago we were poised to do what is being done now . . . I think we’ve really only just begun, there are so many answers to come from inside the mine.”

“We’ve got hints of what’s to come.” Rose was just finishing up selling firewood to a customer on November 19, 2010 when news of the explosion reached him and his wife, Carol Rose.

Thinking it was supposed to be a “modern mine” he thought there would soon be answers about what had happened.

Ten years later he was still waiting — and the fight for answers had taken its toll.

“At times it’s been hard,” he said. “When you think about the time that has gone since my son has killed, it has flown by, but if I think about just the time it has taken to get where they are up the drift and how little we’ve achieved . . . man, it’s been a long 10 years.”

Carol Rose remembered her son as a “ratbag from the day he was born”.

“He had a mind of his own . . . he was into everything.”

But at 31 years old he had “really turned a corner”, and had found a career, she said.

“That’s what’s really sad, we never really got to see his full potential . . . the boys were snuffed out too early.”

During the last conversation with his mum, Stu handed her a USB stick with songs he had downloaded off the computer. He then caught the boss to go up to the mine — two days later he was gone.

Rose still has this “very special flash drive with Stu’s music for mum”.

Carol Rose still wanted answers about why the mine exploded — and who was responsible. “Really what we want is we want the truth . . . we know the truth is there.”

“We need somebody to be accountable for that . . . we’re hopeful the police can get a case together and bring charges,” she said.

After a site visit many attended a memorial service at Blackball.

There, Carol Rose sang This Love, by Dave Dobbyn, which was composed as a tribute to Pike River miners who died.

Erika Ufer, the 9-year-old daughter of miner Joshua Ufer, also spoke to the crowd — she was not even born when her dad died.

“I have been learning about Pike River mine since I was very little,” she said. “Everything I’ve learned about my dad is from the people who loved him.”

It feels like three or four months ago on a day like this. Stephen Rose