On September 11th, 2001, I was only 13 years old. However, that day is still clear in my memory. I don't remember when I heard about the foundation that gave money to the families of the victims of 9/11, but I know it couldn't have been more than a year later. I asked my mom for the money to donate to the organization. As a reminder of that tragic event - and as a reminder of the denonation - I was sent a braclet with the name of a person who had died due to the terrorist attacks. I still wear my braclet. And when I first visited New York three years ago, I visited Ground Zero and the wall that listed everyone who had died. I found the name on my braclet: David Fontana. I will never forget his name nor what he did for our country. Nor will I forget the lose he has endured nor that his family has and continues to endure due to his bravery and loyalty. Thank you. And I am proud to wear his name on my braclet.

Dear Dave Marian and Aiden this is the second note i have sent and hope is more appriate as the first one i sent seem not to have gotten posted as i hope this one will.
I just want to let you know how Dave is a hero to me and as you Marian go to your day to day especially taking care of that sweet boy you and Dave made from your loveyou and your whole family are in my prayers and etched on my heart.
Karen Percy

Dear Marian as I am now reading A widows walk Dave and his band of brothers lost to us that day are bigger than life to me but also are the children who lost their daddies the wives and girlfriends and fiancecs who lost the loves of their lives and others who have last the men who were so important to them.
To me I feel there is still no justice of this . In fact the other night Thrid Watch was the rerun when Taylors Father was found in the fiction side of this and I cried for nearly two hours after and I dont know how many tears i have already shed reading your book and i am only a thrid through it.
Dave and the rest of his band of brothers and their sacrifice will always stay a painfulful sacrifice to me and i will always remember their loved ones as well.God Bless you all.

My name is also David Fontana and I am also sorry for what happened.

my name is david fontana too. i'm sorry.

Given a one dollar bill today and on the back read
"never forget Lt.David Fontana 9/11/01"
I have read and continue to read the names of the victums and try to learn everything i can about them in my mind they will never be forgot.

Dear Marian-I, as many "Americans" watched you bear your heart to the world on "Frontline". I have never experienced your heart-breaking situation-but hopefully you will always remember that "WE AMERICAN PEOPLE" do feel your pain and wish we could do more to help your heart-break. I will pray for you & your son and I feel confidant that someday you will find peace. My best to you& your beautiful son-Sandra

For Marian Fontana, widow of David Fontana, lost on 9/11 while he was valiantly doing his duty as a firefighter: Dearest Marian: Last night, I watched "Frontline: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero" on PBS, a program of soul reminiscences, including yours, which I found absolutely magnificent. It was absolutely beautifully written, and was a truly touching and memorable program...so much so that I can't imagine that any of the other 9/11 programs promising to flood the airwaves within the next week could possibly eclipse it. It was an elucidating and introspective experience about soul-crushing tragedy and the myriad ways we humans experience and interpret it. A transforming experience, I thought...

I am writing to you, Marian, because I can relate very personally to the doubts about God you expressed during the program. I can totally understand your cynicism about God and faith, because I, too, have experienced Auschwitz losses in my life which caused me to seriously doubt both God's existence and his/her goodness. In 1985, my husband, Richard, died of cancer at the age of 40, after a 3-year struggle against that evil disease; and 7 months later, in July of 1985, my oldest daughter, Jenny, drowned at a family reunion in honor of her 9th birthday. These combined losses left me with one surviving daughter, Christina, who was 6 at the time, and reduced me to my very core and foundation. For many years following these heartbreaking and life-altering losses of half of our beautiful and life-affirming family, I doubted both the existence of God and any previously-held view of his/her goodness. My first shred of peace came only in my third year of grief, after one of my most beloved friends suggested that perhaps my loved ones being taken was not an action against me, and all of my family who also suffered these losses; but instead, that it may have been an action to protect my lost loved ones from the pain that they might have experienced had they been allowed to continue living. Until that moment, when my friend gave me this beautiful gift, I railed against and hated God, and felt that if he had planned my husband's and daughter's deaths, I had absolutely and unequivocably no use for Him whatsoever. And at the same time, I felt that if he didn't have control over we human beings and our lives, I also had no use for or need of him in my life. It was only with my friend's suggestion that I came to have even the seeds of peace about my loved ones' deaths. And though I still, 17 years later, don't totally understand the whys of their exits, I am finally at peace. And I can, now, believe in the goodness and miracle of life and the universe and God. It has taken me a long time, and many questioning and angry days to come to this point. But your words and feelings touched me so much during "Frontline," and recalled so many days of my own struggle against presumed evil in my life that I wanted to share with you the benefit of my years of growth. I grieve for you, Marian, and for your beautiful son, the product of the love that you and your beautiful husband shared. And I wanted to write to you and tell you that what you feel now may not always be what you feel in the future. I have been where you are, in your doubt about and anger towards God. And I have somehow survived, my surviving daughter is now 23 and about to finish college...and both of us are, miraculously, still able, after our long struggles with grief, to find beauty, peace and joy in the miracle of life, and to take immense comfort in the beautiful love of our husband/father and daughter/sister who left us so long ago. And we know now, so many thousands of days after they were taken from us so cruelly, that we were blessed by their lives...and that our lives still have meaning in the aftermath. You are a beautiful woman, Marian...and please know that my daughter and I are with you in your journey through grief back into the sunlight again.
Bless you, Marian, dear child of God...and bless your beautiful son, too. I believe that all of us are pieces of God, and that we can all, with His divine help, and with the help of the goodness of the universe, come to an ultimate reinvention away from our doubt...and into the sunlight of belief. I understand, Marian...and I wish both you and your son much love and divine support.

Love,

Mary Underwood

Dear Members of Squad Co 1
I wish to offer my prayers to the members of Squad co 1 and to the family of LT David Fontana. I attending his mass servic.Ever since that day my thoughts are always are with Squad 1.
I know we can never replace our lost brothers but we can never forget them i would like to know if i can get in contact with Fontana's Family to see if i can do anything for his kids
Sincerly
Christopher Schrier
Fire Fighter
Engine/Ladder 65
Bucks Co PA