More
than anything else, the family members want a dignified,
almost reverent approach to the clearing of the 16-acre
site. No one, they stress, should forget for a moment
that the remains of hundreds, perhaps thousands, may
be mixed in with the debris. And so, they say, every
heaping bucket, every loaded shovel, should be examined
for anything that may give a grieving family something
to bury properly. But the widows and family members
also say that their demands extend well into the future;
for example, they want a voice in how the property
is developed. ''This could be a final resting place
for a lot of our loved ones,'' said Marian Fontana,
the widow of a firefighter and the president of a
new group called the 9-11 Widows' and Victims' Families
Association. ''We feel very strongly that we should
be part of the decision-making in what is going to
happen at the site after they're done with the retrieval.
''My fear is that financial motivations would override
sensitivity to the victims,'' she said, ''and we want
to make sure that doesn't happen.''
