What does good journalism looks like? It brings together facts and human stories while communicating large concepts and small detail. It immerses the reader in a carefully constructed world. Reading it is almost like walking through a room filled with vivid experiences and memories.
‘I needed to know what happened’: A father’s quest to understand derailment that killed 2 young women in Ellicott City, Jean Marbella, Baltimore Sun
In 2012 two young women lost their lives because of a horrific train derailment in Ellicott City.
Ten years ago, their daughter, Rose Mayr, and her near lifelong friend, Elizabeth Nass, both 19, had sneaked onto the tracks where they cross over Main Street in Ellicott City, dangling their feet over the edge and snapping a photo as they sought to cap the end of summer before heading back to college. Instead, an approaching CSX train loaded with thousands of tons of coal derailed, 21 of its 80 cars jumping the tracks. The avalanche of coal buried and asphyxiated the two friends.
If you have lived in the area long enough to remember this, then you will remember the shock and grief of the community in reaction to this loss. It’s hard to describe. It was an all-consuming event and it filled our local consciousness for a long time. That’s what grief is like, and this was grief on a large scale. It brought one small town to a halt.
Then time passed. The coal from the derailment was cleared away. Main Street opened again. The town dedicated memorial benches in honor of the two young women. Scholarships were created in their memory. Ever so slowly the event faded from public consciousness.
The private grief remained.
Today’s article by Jean Marbella is the story of how one of the parents, Mark Mayr, processed that grief. It’s about a determined personal investigation to find the cause of the train derailment that killed his daughter and her friend. Marbella follows Mayr’s journey with care, in a way that gives the reader a sense of his pain and persistence.
Go read it. Think about it. Take the time to sit with what you have learned, and with how it makes you feel. This story gives us an opportunity to pause and remember these young women: Rose Mayr. Elizabeth Nass. It’s a chance to share for just a moment the grief their parents carry and honor the ways they have found to keep on living in the face of loss.
This is good journalism. No, this is excellent journalism. Marbella knows how to do this kind of piece well. It takes time, research, hard work, and the kind of critical thinking that can put all the pieces into place so that a story is both informative and engaging. These days that kind of time is given only for stories like this: a ten year retrospective on a tragedy that dominated headlines in both local, national, and international news.
Yes, I lament the demise of local news coverage. If you wonder why, read this piece. It begins almost like a poem:
One February day, he climbed onto the rail bed himself, with lengths of string to measure the curvature and tilt of the tracks.
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