NY Daily News
1/31/10
|
Jennifer
McNamara, here
with her son
Jack, lost her
husband, 9/11
firefighter John
McNamara, last
August of
cancer. She's no
longer sure if
she should give
President Obama
her husband's
badge. |
Jennifer McNamara
wants to honor her
late husband's dying
wish and give the
city firefighter's
badge to President
Obama.
Only, she's no
longer sure she
should.
Or that John
McNamara, who spent
500 hours at Ground
Zero and died last
August of cancer at
the age of 44, would
think Obama still
deserves it.
Her problem: She and
her husband believed
in the President,
voted for him, and
believed he would
ensure the feds
passed a law to
permanently care for
others who answered
the call after 9/11.
She began having
doubts in December,
when key politicians
backed away from
promises to pass the
funding. She went to
the Daily News for
help reaching the
White House to
explain her
agonizing dilemma.
"I wish he would
just support this,"
McNamara said of the
President.
"Then I
could give him the
badge in good
conscience. I'd like
to know that it's
meaningful to him."
It means everything
to her.
"There's something
sacred about the
badge to me. It
shows that he
achieved something
in his life," she
said. "He would
disagree with this,
but it shows he
became a hero, that
he dedicated his
life to saving other
people, to
protecting our
nation."
Jennifer learned
Thursday the White
House plans to spend
$150 million on
9/11-related illness
next year - a good
thing, she said.
But the Obama
administration
doesn't support
mandatory funding of
an $11 billion,
30-year plan stalled
in Congress that
would guarantee care
to all of the 60,000
people being
monitored
|
Sabo/News
FDNY
firefighter
John
McNamara
died at the
age of 44
and was an
'ardent
supporter'
of Obama,
his wife
says. |
|
Gabel for
News
As noted in
his final
wishes, John
asked for
his ashes to
be scattered
in special
places and
for his wife
to build a
community
center for
kids in his
hometown. |
for
potential illness.
"I'm really so
disgusted. I'm so
disappointed," she
said. "I'm
heartbroken because
I think of how John
would have reacted
to this."
John wanted that
bill passed not so
much for
firefighters, who
have medical care,
but for the
volunteers,
construction workers
and other workers
who do not.
"This is his biggest
issue," McNamara
said. "When he was
at
Sloan[-Kettering],
he walked the halls
looking for other
9/11 responders so
he could talk to
them, looking for
ways to help," she
remembered. "That's
just who he was. He
cared passionately
about people."
While he was dying,
he drew up a list of
last wishes, even as
he believed he could
beat the disease and
see his son, Jack,
now 3, grow to be a
good man.
"His last wish was
he never wanted me
to use the list,"
his wife, 42, said.
"He wanted to live."
But he did not, and
the Fire Department
granted him a Trade
Center pension a
month later.
Some of his other
wishes hint at the
kind of man he was.
He asked his wife, a
lawyer, to get a
community center
built for the kids
in his hometown of
Blue Point, L.I.
He wanted Jennifer
to scatter some of
his ashes in Key
Largo, Fla.,
Ireland, the Dallas
Cowboys' stadium,
Disneyland and
Yankee Stadium - all
places important to
him.
His wife is working
on all of them.
"He didn't give me a
deadline," said the
widow, who wears a
tiny pouch of his
ashes around her
neck, the
fulfillment of
another final
request.
But the simple,
powerful gift of his
badge to the
President may be
beyond her.
"It is the one thing
on my list of John's
that he asked me to
do that, unless
there is a change in
the administration's
position, that I
will not," she said.
She still holds out
hope, and the White
House reaffirmed
support for 9/11
families Saturday.
She has a hard time
imagining that a man
like Obama worries
more about the cost
of helping the
people who responded
to Sept. 11 than he
does about the
people.
"My husband was an
ardent supporter of
his," she said, her
voice cracking with
emotion. "I don't
know how I explain
to my 3-year-old son
that his President
doesn't care about
his father and
others like him. How
do you say that?"
She hopes she
doesn't have to.
mmcauliff@nydailynews.com
