‘Breathtaking’: Organization pays off mortgage for fallen trooper’s family

HANOVER COUNTY, Va. (WWBT) - Nearly six years after the death of a Virginia state trooper, a foundation announced it would pay off the home mortgage for his wife and two children.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced it paid off the mortgage for Virginia State Police Trooper II Nathan-Michael Smith, who died of injuries sustained in a car crash when rushing to assist another officer on Sept. 21, 2015.

Smith’s family’s Hanover home was included in 19 mortgages paid by the foundation in honor of Independence Day.

“I am brought to tears thinking about our home being paid off by the Tunnels to Towers Foundation. This was our first home together, a home we worked and prayed to get for years,” said Smith’s wife, Jennifer, in a release. “When Nate passed it was devastating that he wouldn’t get to live in the dream house we worked so hard to purchase. Being able to say I don’t have the burden of paying a monthly mortgage as a single parent is just breathtaking.”

The foundation’s “Fallen First Responder Program” pays mortgage costs for families of officers and firefighters who are killed in the line of duty with young children.

“We cannot replace the loss of a husband and father but we can make sure these families can stay in the place they called home,” said Tunnel to Towers Chairman and CEO Frank Siller.

Tunnel to Towers plans to deliver 200 additional mortgage payoffs across the country by the end of the year, according to a Friday release.

For more information on the foundation, which honors New York Firefighter Stephen Siller and sacrifices made on Sept. 11, 2001, visit this link.

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