Nearly 25 years ago I was folding laundry in our bedroom one morning after getting the kids off to school. My phone rang– the kind of phone plugged into the wall by the bed– and I answered it to hear my excited mother on the line.
She asked if I’d seen the news, and told me I should turn on the TV. I did, to the awful and improbable site of a jet plane implanted in one of the two tallest buildings in New York City. Together we tried to figure out how such a thing could happen, and tried to imagine people evacuating from such a huge building with so many stories.
We were still on the phone when the second plane hit, and my mother said the terrible sentence that was also unimaginable, “Laura, this was not an accident.”
This morning we drove almost 200 miles to Gander, NL. When transatlantic flights were new and glamorous, flights needed a place to refuel right before crossing the Atlantic. Gander build an amazing airstrip, with loads of tarmac and some very long runways.
Long before 9/11, airplanes had developed with no need for a refueling stop, and it had been decades since Gander had seen a high volume of planes. The morning of 9/11, It took less than an hour after the first plane hit the tower for the FAA to close US airspace. Planes in flight heading to North America needed to land somewhere, and air traffic control in Gander directed 200 planes to non-US locations that morning. Thirty-eight landed in Gander– with 7,000 passengers and crew aboard. The number of “plane people” basically matched the population of the town.
Our visit started with a tour of the international lounge. It is elegant mid-century modern. Furniture has been restored, the clocks on the wall have been repaired, and the terrazzo floor shines.
The lounge space is open to the public, and there’s even a small but very modern movie theater on site– in fact, the lounge smells like popcorn. There is a very handsome mural on one wall that was commissioned for the space years ago. The mural celebrates the animals and plants of Canada, while also nodding to the history of aviation.
Above the lounge is a history display of the airport, including the 9/11 tragedy and its intersection with the airport and town.
Our tour guide, Rhonda, has worked at the airport for decades and was on duty for the entire five days that the “plane people” were in Gander. She gave an excellent tour of the space and the history, along with personal memories.
A production of the Broadway musical Come From Away is being shown in town this summer and we were in tonight’s audience. Mark and I saw the show on Broadway in 2018, and I’ve loved it ever since. Written by two Canadians who came to the tenth anniversary Gander reunion, they accomplished what only art can do: They brought a tragedy to life while also giving us belly laughs and foot stomping music. The logistics of suddenly hosting 7000 people boggles the mind, and the people of Gander and surrounding towns opened hearts and homes.
News stories about those five days in Gander were broadcast around the States, and the world. The events of 9/11 still bring a tremendous range of emotion– and the US certainly tried for revenge. I am so grateful that the Newfoundland generosity is part of the story. Many lives were changed in those few days time here in Canada, and the outpouring of thanks and donations shows just how caring people can be.
I am very moved and contemplative to be here within days of the twenty-fifth anniversary of that terrible day. Although I shy away from politics in this travel blog, I have to add, that I am deeply discomforted by the ungracious actions and words of our president against this country, that has done nothing but assist us.
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