The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

Roxanne Loper connected with Lions Club Vice President Bruce MacLeod over a shared affinity for motorcycles. Lead cook for a local senior home, Stan Nichol made an enormous breakfast for the passengers that included fried bologna, a hit with Roxanne’s normally finicky daughter. A volunteer offered to drive the Lopers to Wal-Mart, where they purchase much-needed changes of clothes, and then took them to her home to shower and relax apart from the bustle of the shelter. Rose Shepherd, a native of Ireland and resident of Gander, sent her husband to bring “some nice Irish people for me to talk to” (74). He returned with Lenny and Maria O’Driscoll.

George Vitale went for a run to process his grief and worry about his friends and his sense of guilt that he was so far from home when his city was in crisis. His friend Anthony was safe, but his younger brother, David, who was a husband a father, was missing. After returning to the community center, a local couple invited Vitale to shower and use the phone and computer at their home, instructing him to leave the door unlocked when he was finished. Their acts of kindness reassured him that the world was not as sinister as it felt.