It's never easy to find light in the darkness.
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That is especially so when it involves the loss of someone in tragic circumstances.
We all go through times where we have to deal with the grief that follows the death of someone we love, of a good mate, even someone who we didn't know directly but greatly respected.
It's all to do with the unknowing that is entwined with our own sense of mortality.
Sometimes though that grief is compounded by the circumstances of the person's death.
A fatal car accident, the loss of someone through violence or even that relatively rare event of a natural disaster can expose us to something even more disconcerting and profound.
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It's the shock of it, the "why him?" or "why wasn't it me", the wanting to know answers when these might never be found.
Every loss we face though is different to the next and the next again, even if only by the most minute of differences.
When Lyndon Quinlivan and Ben Pascall died in such tragic circumstances, 12 months today after being exposed to gas at Ettamogah's Norske Skog paper mill, the shock was felt by many.
Again, even if you did not know these men, you knew people who worked with them or knew they chose to lead fruitful lives in the same community that we all love.
It's a shared journey, with its myriad of permutations, so their loss is a grief to which we can painfully relate.
That cannot be compared with what was experienced by the men's families or their friends.
To bid farewell to them as they head off to work, as the television work safety ads illustrate, and not see them come home again is truly the stuff of nightmares.
But it happens and it happened to these men's families.
And their deaths are also a constant reminder to their workmates of what they have lost.
All we can do is join with the whole of the Border community in the wish this small memorial goes some way to providing consolation and strength to them and to the families of Lyndon and Ben.
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