By:KEITH GRANT
A year later, Harry Ford is not forgotten.
Last week, a monument to Ford and Brian Fahey was unveiled at the Rescue 4 firehouse in Woodside, Queens, where both men had worked. Ford, Fahey and firefighter John Downing were killed last Father's Day while fighting a blaze at an Astoria hardware store. All three men left wives and children behind.
Despite the enormity of the tragedy on Sept. 11, Ford's widow Denise has found that her husband has not been forgotten, especially not by his former colleagues.
"They don't forget. To them it's personal."
To the Ford family, Harry's old brothers in the department have become an extended family.
"They've been great. Even with everything they've been through, losing seven guys on Sept. 11. It's hard to explain the closeness you feel with them."
Harry and Denise met almost 20 years ago in Chauncey's, and dated until their marriage in 1988. Harry was already a firefighting veteran, having joined the FDNY on Jan. 26, 1974. In 1990, he joined the elite Rescue 4 and, with 27 years on the job, he was the senior fireman in the house when he died.
Ford was not one to discuss the risks he faced on the job every day, his wife said. He talked about his pension, not life insurance. But even after those 27 years on the job, retirement wasn't on his mind.
"He loved being a fireman. He just loved it. And he was a good fireman."
Indeed fellow firefighters recalled him as a "pitbull" of a fireman at his funeral at St. Ignatius R.C. Church last fall. The family and neighbors, Denise said, were blown away by the impressiveness of the funeral service, a service that shut down many Long Beach streets as 10,000 firefighting brothers came to pay their respects.
"Driving through the ranks of the firemen, I couldn't believe it," Denise Ford said. A sad reality, she noted, is that so many men from that funeral aren't here anymore.
"They were there to honor my husband, and three months later they were gone."
Denise Ford has attended a number of services for firefighters lost on Sept. 11, particularly those for her husband's former brothers in Rescue 4. Many times, she has been told since the 11th that had Harry not died in Astoria, he would have at the World Trade Center.
"They firmly believe he would have perished Sept. 11. Even had he not been working, he would've gone down there."
Had he been around for the collapse of the towers and lived, Denise said, the loss of so many may have been too much for him to handle.
"I don't know how he would have handled losing so many."
Much is said about the bond among firefighters when they lose one of their own. Ford has seen it constantly for a year now as other members of the FDNY stepped up to help her and the family.
"Even the Long Beach firemen stepped up. They ran the collation afterwards at the Indiana firehouse. It was unbelievable."
Now Ford finds herself with a family larger than she and Harry ever had as she has found a sisterhood with other fire department widows.
"When you get together, you can sense that bond. We realize we'll be together for life. Even our children identify with each other."
The one year anniversary unfortunately did not serve to bring any closure to the Ford's Virginia Avenue home, where Denise lives with her daughter Janna, 25, and sons Harry, 13, and Gerard, 11.
"I think the second year is the harder of the two. With everything that goes on the first year, you're so distracted. The second year, you settle in. I feel like now I want to retreat and mourn my husband."
Last week's Father's Day, though, brought flowers and cards from many friends and neighbors. "It's those little things that really touch you."
