WILLIAMSON - His voice breaking, Bo Copley read a Bible verse, steadied his nerves and handed a picture of his three children to the woman across the table.
Outside, hundreds of people, angry and shouting, stood in the pouring rain in front of a pawn shop and a shuttered building.
"The reason you hear those people out there," Copley, 39, told Hillary Clinton, "is because, when you make comments that you're going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs, these are the people you're affecting. That's my family."
I don't mind anyone being angry, Clinton told Copley, who recently lost his job as an assistant foreman at a mine owned by Arch Coal.
She apologized, trying to explain her much-publicized remarks from March, in which, touting her plan to reinvest in coalfield communities, she said, "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
"What I said was totally out of context from what I meant, because I have been talking about helping coal country for a long time," Clinton said. "What I was saying is the way things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs."
Copley was one of 10 community members who sat with Clinton at a health clinic in Williamson, talking about the serious issues facing Southern West Virginia, the bright spots amid a troubled economy and the path forward for a region whose major industry, once dominant, shows no sign of bouncing back from its steep decline.
"I can't promise miracles," Clinton said at the Williamson Health and Wellness Center. "We are going to do whatever we can to help the people here in West Virginia who deserve the gratitude of our country for everything that you have done over so many decades."
She pledged support for two stalled pieces of legislation - the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Act and the Miners Protection Act, a bill to secure the pensions and health benefits of thousands of retired miners and mine widows.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., an early Clinton supporter who had all but demanded an apology after Clinton's March remarks, reiterated his support.
"We had a very frank discussion," Manchin said. "If I thought that was in her heart, if I thought she wanted to eliminate one job in West Virginia, I wouldn't be sitting here."
He credited her with coming to West Virginia, to Mingo County, where her comments on coal were received as harshly as anywhere in the country.
"It's easy, easy for anybody in public office to go and visit with your friends all day long," he said. Going to areas that are more hostile, "that's real leadership," he said.
Manchin was showered with shouts as he entered the clinic in advance of the event.
"Honestly, if I can be candid, I still think supporting her hurts you," Copley said.
Standing outside before Clinton arrived, Harry Mikailian, from Chattaroy, Mingo County, bedecked head to toe in Donald Trump gear, made the same point.
"I want to see what politicians in our town are supporting her," Mikailian said, "so I can vote against them."
Inside the clinic, which provides general health care, dentistry, vision, nutrition and a holistic array of health services, Clinton had a more supportive audience.
She heard from Vickie Hatfield, who runs the diabetes program at the center and has seen huge success by sending health workers for home visits, a program funded by federal and private grants.
Brandon Dennison runs the Coalfield Development Corporation and told Clinton about its work providing construction jobs for young men who, in another time, would have found work in the mines.
Dennison told Clinton about their hopes that Internet access could "level the playing field," equalizing opportunities in Williamson and New York.
"We need to raise as much visibility about this as possible, because we would never have electrified America if there hadn't been government support," Clinton said.
Durand Warren told Clinton about how drugs led him to prison, but he's since earned a master's degree and is now a drug abuse counselor at Logan-Mingo Area Mental Health.
"It comes down to, there's no jobs in this area and when there's no jobs, there's a trickle-down effect," Warren said. "I'm seeing people who are addicted to opiates every day...community mental health centers are bleeding."
Clinton said that the country needs a more comprehensive approach to both mental health and addiction.
"This is a crisis that we find in many parts of the country, but it is made worse here in West Virginia because of the other economic stresses that are bearing down," she said.
Leasha Johnson, director of the Mingo County Economic Development Authority, told Clinton about how it had developed an industrial park and a fish hatchery, among other businesses - but did so in partnership with a coal company.
"At the very heart of all that we have done and continue to do," Johnson said, "is the mining industry."
Clinton supports President Barack Obama's regulations on coal-fired power plants, and she has said that the United States needs to go further than that to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
She repeatedly touted her plan to reinvest in coalfield communities, released in November. Similar proposals from Obama have gone nowhere in the Republican-controlled Congress.
"There is no easy answer," Clinton said. "It's going to take everybody working together, and it does take a president who's really willing to work with you and be a partner with you and keep coming back to hear what's working and what's not."
At the end of the event, after a face-to-face discussion with the woman most likely to win the Democratic nomination for president, Copley remained unconvinced. He didn't think he'd vote for Clinton, but wasn't sure who he would vote for.
"I want to know what we have to look forward to here in Southern West Virginia," he said.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.