BELLOWS FALLS-Tim Fontaine, a well-known and much-loved Bellows Falls athlete and business owner, died in 2004, just a few days after he turned 47, following a 10-month struggle with cancer.
Now, more than 20 years later, his brother, Thomas E. “Tommy” Fontaine, has just released a book, My Journey: Brother to Brother, a very personal memoir of a very difficult period based on the journal he kept while he watched his brother fade and die.
Fontaine, now of Perkinsville, has been a teacher for over 40 years and has written three other books of historical fiction.When asked why he is publishing this memoir now, over 20 years after his brother has passed, Tommy says “I never intended to publish it. But several people encouraged me to reconsider.”
Now 62, and aware of his own mortality, Fontaine said he felt it was time to put the story out there — both to honor his brother’s life and to talk frankly about the dying and grieving process.
Since he first wrote it in 2004, Fontaine said, several people read the journal, and many of them encouraged him to publish it for a wider audience, feeling it had important things to say about those issues, as well as family, community, and brotherhood.
One of those readers was longtime family friend Tom Salmon, the former Vermont state auditor whose father, Thomas P. Salmon, served as governor from 1973 to 1977.
“I grew up with Tommy,” Salmon said. “We played basketball together and were teammates on the Jets Pee Wee football team. His brothers, Brian and Barry, were also on that team, and their father, Eugene, was one of our coaches.”
After graduating high school in Bellows Falls, Salmon and the Fontaines fell out of touch but reconnected a few years ago when Fontaine helped the Salmons with a major construction project.
During that time, Fontaine shared the manuscript with Salmon, who, in turn, shared it with his friend Ellen McSweeney.
“Ellen is a former colleague from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” Salmon said, describing her as “a sharp attorney, and an experienced editor.”
“Together, we began shaping the book into publishable form,” he continued. “Both of us were deeply moved by Tommy’s story, by his journey, and by Tim’s life and legacy. We agreed the book deserved a wider audience and should be celebrated throughout the Connecticut River Valley.”
‘A humble, sincere, and decent human being’
Raw, sad, funny, angry, and filled with mixed emotions, the book is not an easy read, especially for anyone who knows the Fontaine family.
The brothers’ parents, Dottie Ann and Gene Fontaine, grew up in Bellows Falls, raised their family there, and lived there all their lives. Married for 50 years, they were well-known in the community. Gene Fontaine served as the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU) business manager for 26 years.
The book is a tribute to Tim Fontaine’s life, and includes insights from his wife, Caroline, and three daughters, as well as from his sister, his three younger brothers, his parents, and many friends who rallied around him during his illness.
The story recounts his many accomplishments in life, in business, and in his community, and highlights a generous and warm nature.
“Tim was a gifted and skilled carpenter,” Salmon remembered. “But even more than that, he was a humble, sincere, and decent human being — truly one of the best I have ever known.”
The memoir is also very much the frank recollections of Fontaine’s personal struggles dealing with loss and grief while he watched his brother fiercely face a painful disease and death with courage and humor.
Fontaine adored his brother, who was seven years older. At 6 foot 3 inches tall and 220 pounds, Tim was movie star handsome, an outstanding athlete in numerous sports, and easy to admire, especially by a kid brother. Tim was a three-sport varsity athlete at Bellows Falls Union High School, playing baseball and basketball and quarterbacking the football team.
He went on to play football at Vermont Academy during a year in preparation for college and then played collegiate football for four years, quarterbacking his team at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
A serious kidney injury suffered in a game sidelined his athletic career.
Tim returned to his hometown of Bellows Falls and became an accomplished woodworker and carpenter, operating his own construction company and working maintenance in the school system.
All through this, Tommy looked up to his big brother as his hero and protector. Tim took Tommy under his wing and watched out for him. They did sports together. Tim taught Tommy carpentry. They shared a love of woodworking. Tommy would work for his older brother doing construction during his summer breaks from teaching.
That pattern continued until 2003 and Tim’s diagnosis of cancer.
A terminal diagnosis
Salmon recalled Tim Fontaine working with him in 2003 during home renovations at 7 Hapgood St.
During that project, Tim installed antique tin ceiling panels the Salmon family had removed from Meatland, a butcher shop they had owned at 46 Westminster St.
“I still remember him working in the bathroom off the kitchen, carefully putting those pieces in place, when he mentioned he was feeling dizzy,” Salmon said. “Within days, he began undergoing medical tests and treatment.”
Tim’s family and friends were blindsided by the unmistakable diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. Tumors were growing in Tim’s brain, and clots would soon develop in his lungs.
He would outlive the initial diagnosis of three to six months, but not by much. The ravages of cancer and radiation treatments would take their toll on Tim Fontaine’s once-athletic body, and he would die just 10 months after the initial diagnosis.
‘I wrote it to heal, to remember’
Someone gave Tommy Fontaine a blank journal during this period, and he began to write. He recorded events and conversations, memories he had of times spent with his brother.
“Journaling was my release,” Tommy said. “It helped with healing. I didn’t want to forget how I felt then, the hurt and anguish. I wrote it to heal, to remember. Time helps, but it still hurts.”
Tommy wrote candidly about his struggles with insomnia and depression during this time, his need for isolation, his anger about what was happening to his brother and best friend. He wrote about looking for answers to why this happened, as well as his search for closure that has never really come.
“Emotions are emotions, and you don’t always get to pick what you want to feel,” Fontaine said. “At times like that, my advice is simple: Be there for the people that need you. Writing about this, I hope people read it and say, ‘I’ve felt that feeling,’ and know that it’s OK to feel it.”
While Salmon and McSweeney worked on editing the manuscript into 2025, “Tommy continued receiving stories and reflections he wanted to include,” Salmon said, noting late contributions from people whose lives Tim had touched, including Tim Allen, Kevin Haseltine, Frank Capen, and Joey Fennessey, as well as Vermont Academy football coach Dexter Morse.
Messages from classmates and teammates at UMass also arrived late in the process and were added to the story.
“Each addition enriched the story,” Salmon said.
He said he “encouraged Tommy to write more about his parents. Tim’s illness had devastated them, yet their strength and character were central to understanding the Fontaine family. They were the backbone of that all-American family and helped explain so much about why Tim became the man he was. Tommy later sent me audio recordings about each parent’s life, and I am grateful those memories were included.”
The final stage involved securing trademark permissions from WNESU, Vermont Academy, and UMass to use their logos on the book’s cover. “Each institution was gracious and supportive, and none required a fee,” Salmon added.
One last round
Salmon said that his role in “helping bring this book to life came from respect — for Tim, for Tommy, and for the entire Fontaine family, who had always treated me with kindness.”
“I knew Tommy’s true purpose was not personal recognition, but to honor his brother and to help others walking the painful road of loving someone who is dying. I believe he has done exactly that,” he added.
When Tim became ill, Salmon said he stayed close to him and his family.
“Scott Falzo and I started a ‘200 Club’ and opened an account at TD Bank. We quickly raised $20,000 for Tim’s family. Scott’s Shell station was the perfect collection point, and Scott knew everyone. Our hope was to find 200 people willing to donate $100, but the generosity of the community far exceeded expectations.”
Salmon recalls that in the final months of his life, “Tim made custom mirrors for both Scott and me as a token of appreciation. Attached was a simple card that read, ‘Don’t ever change.’
“It was classic Tim — thoughtful, personal, and heartfelt,” Salmon said.
During Fontaine’s final weeks, “I visited him at his house,” Salmon said. “He was weak and had lost his hair, yet his spirit remained. Tim cracked open a couple of Budweiser cans for us, and we shared one last round together.”
For more information about My Journey: Brother to Brother, including how to order the book, visit mrfwrites.com.
This News item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.