(CNN) -- No matter the years she has been away and the miles that separate her, Crystal Roles still calls Naoma, West Virginia, home.





She left the mining town with her high school sweetheart, soon after they graduated and married in 1989. But every trip back home -- to the area the world has been watching for days -- is a reunion with a special world for the coal miner's daughter.





"It's a breed of people, a group of people that are like nobody else," says Roles, 39. "The same people who are underground now, looking for the four missing, are kids I went to high school with."





Authorities confirmed early Saturday that rescue efforts had came to a grim end after crews found the bodies of four miners who had been missing since the explosion almost a week ago.





The death toll from Monday's blast at the Upper Big Branch mine now stands at 29, making it the worst mining disaster in the United States in nearly four decades.





Rescue crews going underground, Roles says, may have had "to step over one of their neighbors, a deacon in their church or someone who recently sat on the front porch with them having a glass of tea."





Since the explosion, outsiders have tuned in to the news from her hometown. But for those who live there or were raised in mining communities, the story will continue long after the media trucks pull away. Grounded in family ties, hard work and pride, it is a story that links generations and binds people together.





It is a life driven by harsh economic realities -- the need to have work and support families. It comes with a steep price: Miners hold one of the most dangerous jobs in America.





In West Virginia, the average miner brings home $68,000 a year, according to 2007 figures provided by the National Mining Association -- a salary the organization says is 100 percent higher than the average state wage.





Because of her deep connection to Naoma, Roles, who now lives in Hickory, North Carolina, has hung on every shred of information she can get. Text messages from cousins came almost immediately Monday evening. And through phone calls to her parents, she knows her 63-year-old father, Benny Crum, is a wreck.





See Roles' iReport posting





"I've cried ever since this happened. My heart is broke," Crum, a former miner, said Thursday night. "Coal miners -- it's like a fraternity. When it comes to one of them getting hurt, we all hurt. You want to go and help."





Forced into retirement 18 years ago, after he said black lung disease made the work impossible, Crum feels there's little he can do. Dependent on oxygen tanks, he listened to his scanner Monday night and watched and worried as others raced to the Upper Big Branch coal mine. Later, from his porch, he looked on as his community formed a candlelight vigil.





Being a coal miner was in his blood and all Crum ever wanted to do. The danger of his job, roof bolting -- or supporting the ceilings to keep others safe -- was like a drug that fueled him during 18-hour days. His father began working in the mines at age 12, the day after his own father died on the job.





"My daddy was a miner for 57 years. Most of his life was spent underground," Crum said.





Among the miners are men who defy the stereotypes held by some outsiders, Crum said. Though they are miners, they are also teachers, ministers, police officers. They're people who are trained and do this work because they are proud to, or because their other career choices haven't paid enough to support their families. Crum said he's seen coal miners quit to head off to medical school.





"They're not doing this because they're too stupid to do anything else," he said. "They're skilled and educated people -- not just a bunch of hicks."





And there's a work ethic
Who feels a kinship to the miners? who said "When it comes to one of them getting hurt, we all suffer" What happens when one is hurt?
Crystal Roles Benny Crum, we all
question: Who feels a kinship to the miners?, answer: Crystal Roles | question: who said "When it comes to one of them getting hurt, we all suffer", answer: Benny Crum, | question: What happens when one is hurt?, answer: we all