How amazing is this story. I worked with the father, he was an old H&Q guy and if anyone remembers, he is the one I used to smoke cigarettes with in his office. I am sure you remember when I went out to his funeral. Anyway, this story shows you just how amazing Rudy is after everything that has happened.
                                   RUDY KEEPS HIS WORD 
                               By KIRSTEN DANIS, DAVID SEIFMAN and BILL HOFFMANN 
                                                 September 17, 2001 -- Diane 
                                                 Gorumba of Brooklyn beamed with 
                                                 pride yesterday as Mayor Giuliani 
                                                 walked her down the aisle - and 
                                                 helped erase a nightmarish year of 
                                                 tragedy for the Brooklyn bride's 
                                                 family. 
                                                 The mayor kept a promise he made 
                                                 last month to Diane, 23, after her 
                                                 firefighter brother, Michael, who 
                                                 was supposed to give her away, 
                                                 died Aug. 28 while fighting a 
                                                 three-alarm blaze on Staten Island. 
                                                 "We will go on. This proves it right 
                                                 here. The mayor came here - he 
                                                 thought about us," the beaming 
                                                 newlywed said as she jumped into a 
                                                 limo with husband, Michael Ferrito, 
                                                 31, a police officer at the 61st 
                                                 Precinct. 
                                                 Diane has already lived through 12 
                               months of her own horrors. Her grandfather died Sept. 13, 
                               2000, and 17 days later, her dad, an executive at J.P. 
                               Morgan Chase, also passed away. 
                               With her father gone, she asked her brother, a member of 
                               Engine Co. 163, to walk her down the aisle at St. James 
                               Lutheran Church in Gerrittsen Beach, and he agreed. 
                               Then, the Staten Island fire tragedy took Michael's life. 
                               At Michael's funeral, Diane sadly lamented to her mom, Gail, 
                               that there was nobody to escort her up to the altar. She 
                               half-jokingly turned to the mayor and asked, "Why don't you 
                               do it?" 
                               "I'd be honored," Giuliani replied, without missing a beat. 
                               Yesterday morning, Giuliani - who has been working round 
                               the clock since the Twin Towers horror - said the wedding 
                               meant "a great deal to him." 
                               The mayor recalled asking Gail Gorumba, after her son died, 
                               how she has kept going through her grief. 
                               "She feels the pain of it, she allows the pain to happen," 
                               Giuliani said. "But then she focuses on the good things that 
                               are left in life, like her daughter's wedding. I thought about 
                               that a good deal of time this week." 
                               The bride and groom's families said they will be eternally 
                               grateful to him. 
                               "It meant more than I can ever, ever say. He's the best, and 
                               I wish we could re-elect him" Diane said. 
                               As 225 people jammed the quaint 77-year-old church, the 
                               mayor gave Diane his left arm. 
                               Smiling happily for perhaps the first time since the Tuesday 
                               disaster, Giuliani - clad in black tie with a white rose in his 
                               lapel - slowly strode down the aisle and brought Diane to the 
                               groom. 
                               Then he lifted her veil and kissed her on the cheek. 
                               As the 30-minute ceremony proceeded, the mayor sat in the 
                               front row with the bride's mom. Afterward, Giuliani got into 
                               his car to head back to Manhattan, and the serious work at 
                               hand. 
Patty Donahue 
JP Morgan H&Q 
ph 212-834-4902 
fx 212-834-6066 
patty.donahue@chase.com