Everybody Wanted To Go Home
By Friday morning, the mood across Newfoundland had changed.
The fear was still there.
The uncertainty was still there.
But now something else had arrived.
Movement.
Flights were beginning to leave.
Passengers were making plans.
Families were finding routes home.
After three long days of waiting, people could finally see a way forward.
Unfortunately, seeing a way home and actually getting home turned out to be two very different things.
Roxanne Loper learned that almost immediately.
She woke up feeling miserable.
Sore throat.
Aches.
Congestion.
The flu.
The timing could not have been worse.
After refusing to board the Lufthansa flight the night before, Roxanne, her husband Clark, their daughter Alexandria, and another stranded family were still stuck in Gander trying to figure out how to get back to Texas.
Bruce MacLeod was still helping.
Of course he was.
By Friday morning he had managed to locate the last available rental van in town.
An eight-passenger van.
Just big enough.
Barely.
The plan seemed simple enough.
Drive across Newfoundland.
Catch the ferry.
Cross into New Brunswick.
Find transportation into the United States.
Then somehow make their way home.
Simple.
Except Newfoundland is an island.
Rental agreements don’t care about desperation.
And now a hurricane had entered the conversation.
Because apparently this journey wasn’t difficult enough already.
Hurricane Erin was moving through the Atlantic.
Forecasters were watching it closely.
If conditions worsened, ferry service could be suspended.
If that happened, the entire plan collapsed.
So they loaded the van.
Suitcases went on the roof.
Children squeezed into seats.
A cat wandered freely inside.
According to witnesses, they looked less like tourists and more like characters escaping the pages of a Steinbeck novel.
When it came time to leave, Roxanne hugged Bruce and Sue MacLeod goodbye.
Again.
At this point, nobody knew how many “goodbyes” there would be.
The van pulled away.
The journey continued.
Across town, seventeen-year-old Olesya Buntylo finally managed to call home.
Her parents lived in Moldova.
For days they had watched television coverage of the attacks in New York and feared the worst.
They thought their daughter might have been on one of those planes.
When they finally heard her voice, they cried.
So did Olesya.
She was only seventeen.
Pregnant.
Traveling alone to start a new life in America.
Then she ended up stranded in Newfoundland.
Not exactly part of the immigration brochure.
Yet something remarkable had happened while she waited.
The strangers around her had stopped feeling like strangers.
The local church members had become friends.
The children played soccer together despite speaking different languages.
Families cooked together.
At night they sang songs together.
Sometimes the verses alternated between English and Russian.
Nobody understood every word.
Everybody understood the feeling.
Not every departure went smoothly.
Passengers from Continental Flight 23 thought they were finally leaving.
Then they weren’t.
Then they were again.
Then maybe they weren’t.
By Friday, patience was wearing thin.
Some passengers wanted to return to Europe.
Others wanted to continue to the United States.
Arguments broke out.
Voices rose.
A vote was even called.
One passenger shouted for everyone wanting Dublin to raise their hands.
Another group demanded Newark.
The debate continued until the pilot ended it.
“This is not a democracy.”
The room went silent.
His job wasn’t to take votes.
His job was to get everybody home safely.
Sometimes leadership is simply making a decision nobody likes.
One man had a very different decision to make.
Werner Baldessarini.
Chairman of Hugo Boss.
A private jet was on its way to collect him.
He could have been home before dinner.
Most people would have taken it.
Werner didn’t.
He cancelled the flight.
His staff thought he was crazy.
Maybe they were right.
But after three days in Gander, he felt something he hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
Community.
Not networking.
Not business relationships.
Not corporate partnerships.
Community.
The passengers were no longer strangers.
The people of Gander were no longer strangers.
He didn’t want to leave them behind.
So he stayed.
At another school, Rabbi Leivi Sudak was having thoughts of his own.
The trip had started as a simple visit to New York.
Now he found himself stranded in Newfoundland.
And strangely grateful for it.
He watched local teenagers volunteer alongside their parents.
He watched neighbours help complete strangers.
He watched a community functioning exactly the way communities are supposed to function.
It reminded him of something.
Or perhaps it reminded him of something the world had forgotten.
Then came one of my favourite moments in the entire story.
There were dozens of children stranded aboard one flight headed for Disney World.
Some were celebrating birthdays.
The people of Gander heard about it.
And immediately decided this situation was unacceptable.
You cannot have children stuck in Newfoundland on their birthdays.
Apparently that’s against local law.
So the town built its own version of Disney.
There were decorations.
Costumes.
Games.
Presents.
A giant birthday cake.
Mickey Mouse wasn’t available.
But Commander Gander showed up.
The kids loved it anyway.
Maybe more.
Meanwhile, at the airport, RCMP Corporal Grant Smith had a different mission.
Security remained tight.
Passengers were nervous.
The lines were long.
Nobody enjoyed the process.
So Smith tried something unusual.
He made people smile.
He greeted travelers with the same line.
“Your passport and a smile.”
Eventually he went one step further.
He showed up wearing the full Red Serge uniform.
The famous Mountie outfit.
The one people around the world recognize instantly.
Passengers lined up for photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Years later, many would still have those pictures tucked away in albums and boxes.
One final reminder of a place they never expected to visit.
And never forgot.
By Friday evening, more planes were leaving.
More passengers were heading home.
More goodbyes were being said.
The schools were beginning to empty.
The churches were getting quieter.
The gymnasiums were slowly returning to normal.
But something else was happening too.
The people leaving Newfoundland weren’t leaving the same people who had arrived.
Three days earlier they had stepped off airplanes as strangers.
Now many were leaving friends behind.
Some were leaving family behind.
Not by blood.
By choice.
By kindness.
By shared experience.
And maybe that’s why so many of the goodbyes hurt.
Because home was finally getting closer.
But for the first time since September 11...
Nobody was quite ready to leave Gander.
For five days, a small Newfoundland town became home to thousands of strangers.
This is their story.
And it is Canada’s story too.
Next in the series: Part 9 – Leaving Gander
Missed the beginning? Read Part 1 here: The Day the World Came to Town
#TheWorldCameToTown #GanderSeries #GeezerWiseSays
Source: The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede
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'Commander Gander'. Your passport, and a smile. The humanity that the community of Gander brought at a time of uncertainty bonded more than people.
Dear Fred, these goodbyes are breaking hearts still, just by reading it!!!! Thanks for another awesome chapter! On some planes Newfoundlanders were in for another huge surprise :) <3