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A flashbulb memory is a vivid flashback to a significant moment in time. Everyone’s got one: where you were when you heard JFK was shot, when the Berlin Wall fell or, now 20 years later, when the twin towers were struck on Sept. 11, 2001.
For Dublin resident Shirley Brooks-Jones, the answer is immediate. She was sitting on the tarmac of Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada after her trans-Atlantic flight was diverted there, U.S. airspace having closed immediately after the first attack on the World Trade Center.
“The captain on our plane came on and told us what had happened, and I couldn’t believe it,” says Brooks-Jones. “I was thinking this must be an accident.”
Brooks-Jones’ story and the relationships she and the other “plane people” – folks aboard the 38 planes diverted to that airport – formed with the Newfoundlanders is as extensive as it is touching. The locals took in the almost 7,000 passengers and provided for them while they waited for U.S. airspace to open again, which took six days.
On the return flight home, Brooks-Jones spearheaded a campaign to raise money for an educational scholarship for the high school students of the Gander-Lewisporte area. Today, that scholarship has been awarded to 341 students.
Brooks-Jones was the ninth person to be nominated for the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador, which is the highest award given by the province.
“I couldn't believe it,” says Brooks-Jones. “I mean, it was just beautiful.”
David Hein and Irene Sankoff are the playwrights of the Broadway hit musical Come from Away. Despite their Canadian heritage, they had never heard of the story of the plane people in Newfoundland until the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
“As we were approaching the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I got a telephone call from this couple. They said they were thinking about doing a musical about 9/11 and they wanted to know if I would be willing to work with them on this,” says Brooks-Jones. “I said, ‘How can you do a musical about 9/11?’ And they said, ‘Well, we’re going to try.’”
Hein and Sankoff dove into researching the events that took place in the Gander-Lewisporte areas to begin writing the story.
“They actually went to Gander and they met a lot of these people, and they made contact with a lot of the passengers and a lot of the Newfoundlanders who have been involved in all these kinds of stuff,” says Brooks-Jones.
The musical features a small cast playing multiple roles, and many of its original musicians are from Newfoundland.
“It’s a great history of what happened on 9/11,” Brooks-Jones says. “The person who portrays me in the musical on the North American tour is James Earl Jones II. He is the nicest guy! I got to see it on Broadway, in New York. It was wonderful.”
Come from Away comes to the Ohio Theatre in February 2022. For more information, visit www.capa.com.
As Brooks-Jones explains, while the majority of the media attention goes to Gander, where the international airport is housed, it wasn’t just Gander that helped the plane people.
“It really zeroes in on what happened in Gander, … but Gander wasn’t the only place that took care of people,” she says. “It was all these little teeny towns, little dots on the map, that really took care of the majority of us.”
Before she even touched down on American soil following 9/11, Brooks-Jones made it her mission to share her story and give credit to the people who helped her and her countrymen in a time of need. One of the first times she shared her story with the media resulted in a book.
“About a third of the way through the interview, (editor Judith Regan) stopped and she said, ‘I love this story! I love this story,’” says Brooks-Jones. “Well, after the interview was over, she hired Jim DeFede, who was an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald, to go to Newfoundland to spend three months just driving all over Newfoundland to meet with not just the folks of Gander and those people, but all over Newfoundland, to get these stories.”
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland was published in 2003, but that wasn’t the end of Brooks-Jones and DeFede’s relationship. Through the years, Brooks-Jones would call up DeFede and tell him about new stories coming out of the 9/11 events in Newfoundland, encouraging him to write a follow-up novel. This year, her persistence came to fruition.
“I got in touch with (DeFede) and said, ‘I understand you got in touch with the Columbus Foundation. That must mean you’re writing your book,’” says Brooks-Jones. “And he said, ‘I’ve finished it.’”
DeFede’s revised edition has the same name as the first, but includes more stories and testimonials, as well as a new afterword.
Through DeFede’s novel, the Broadway hit musical, the scholarship for the Gander-Lewisporte students and more, Brooks-Jones’ legacy is that we truly never will forget 9/11, nor the kindnesses from others that followed.
“I’ve talked to all kinds of groups, and one thing just leads to another,” says Brooks-Jones. “It is so much fun to share with them this absolutely utterly incredible experience. It just keeps going and going.”
Sarah Robinson is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
