BRIDGET HARRISON
New York Post Online
Tamara Beckwith/New York Post Online
STAYING STRONG:
Marian Fontana wears the jacket of firefighter husband David, whose memory she's honoring by speaking out for the WTC recovery effort.
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December 19, 2001 -- FDNY colleagues found the body of Marian Fontana's firefighter husband, David, deep in the rubble that was the north tower just two weeks ago.
It was a poignant compensation for Fontana, who lost her husband on Sept. 11 - the day of their eighth wedding anniversary - and who heads up the campaign on behalf of WTC victims' widows to keep the search for bodies going at ground zero.
"People thought we were operating on false hope, but I just knew that it wasn't so," said Fontana, 35, of Brooklyn.
"I wanted my husband to be found by one of his brothers, not by some Dumpster."
As president of the 9/11 Widows and Victims' Families Association, Fontana is one of the many victims of Sept. 11 who have channeled their anguish into activism on behalf of their lost loved ones.
Thanks to Fontana's efforts, there's a new, powerful political voice in the city - but nothing makes up for losing the man she'd love since she was 18.
For her, Christmas won't be about eggnog and sing-alongs this year. "For me, there will be no holiday. I'm just going through the motions for my son," she said.
And every day, there's the memory of an eight-year milestone missed. If Sept. 11 had worked out the way she and David, 38, had planned, they would have celebrated their anniversary at the Central Park Boathouse and at the Whitney Museum. And they almost did. A little before 9 a.m., David called to say he had just finished his 24-hour shift at Brooklyn's Squad 1.
"I'll meet you in 10 minutes," he said.
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