THE ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, CLAIMED the life of my fiancé, Dennis Mojica, a 50-year-old lieutenant at FDNY Rescue 1, a fire station in Manhattan. Letters of sympathy and support poured into the firehouse from around the world, but one stood out: Charlene Klein, from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, wrote with the invitation to call her anytime. In the depths of my grief, I felt compelled to reach out to her. From our first conversation, it seemed as if we had known each other forever. Soon boxes of plush robes wrapped in bows arrived at the firehouse for all the grieving women. “When I need comfort,” Charlene said, “a big, cozy robe is the best thing.”
Since then, I’ve traveled to Wisconsin more than a dozen times and Charlene has…
