Welcome to Gander, Newfoundland, the kindest place in the world

Oz Fudge is tucking into breakfast at The Goose. “That line in the play is true. I said: ‘You got to get a taxi to The Goose.”

In 2001, Oz was Gander’s police officer and is one of the characters portrayed in the award-winning musical Come from Away, which tells the story of what happened when 38 planes were diverted to Gander International Airport after the US closed its airspace. In a few hours, the town of 9,000 inhabitants swelled in size when 7,000 passengers from around the world were stranded here.

“Most Americans don’t know where Canada is, let alone Gander,” Oz says, wolfing down his pancakes. “I remember the look on their faces: total loss. The ladies at the Collegiate just hugged them all and said, 'We got you’.”

That’s how they do things in Newfoundland. When his father died, Oz tells me, there was a knock at the door and the food started coming. He has eight siblings, all with children and in a few hours they had enough to feed everyone for five days. “When there’s a death in the family, the community takes care of it. It’s our way.”

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Newfoundland is larger than Ireland but has a population of half a million. The first airport was built in the 1930s when transatlantic aviation began to take off. Newfoundland was the first landfall after crossing the Atlantic and a vital refuelling spot.

During its fleeting golden era, Gander became known as the “crossroads of the world”. There are archive photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor. The Beatles and Elvis Presley have trod the tarmac. At one point, it was the largest airport in the world thanks to its runway capacity.

When Newfoundland became part of Canada, the government was busy sprucing up its airports and went to town building a shiny new terminal. No expense was spared: a floating staircase, Italian terrazzo floor, Eames chairs, sculptor Arthur Price’s Birds of Welcome sculpture and artist Kenneth Lochhead’s mural, Flight and its Allegories.

The day before I met Rhonda Lane, who has worked at the airport her whole life in ground handling and passenger services. She was there on September 11 and now gives guided tours.

By the turn of the century, she explained, most aircraft no longer needed to refuel. The building had fallen into decline and there was talk of tearing it down. When locals found out, they were up in arms. Then Heritage Canada got wind of it.

“They called it one of the most important mid-century buildings in the country,” Rhonda laughs. “That’s what happens when you don’t change the furniture for 50 years!”

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Instead of being demolished, the airport was painstakingly restored. Today, there’s a popular restaurant and even a movie theatre here. But by 9/11, air traffic was limited to a few domestic flights and the occasional military aircraft.

Until, to steal a phrase, “the day the world came to town”.

Rhonda was working that day and watched the planes strike the Twin Towers on television. “I remember feeling like I was frozen. Someone said, ‘I wonder if they’ll close US airspace.’ And someone else replied, ‘If they do, we’re going to see some diversions.’ That was an understatement.”

Listening to her explain how the day unfolded – passengers processed manually then transferred by school bus to colleges and church halls – I was spellbound. Upstairs, an absorbing exhibition includes a piece of steel from the Twin Towers.

Back in the diner with Oz, he takes a slurp of coffee. “I got a call from my counterpart in Atlanta, Sheryl McCollum, whose sister, Sharlene, was one of the plane crew.” She asked Oz to find her sister and give her a hug. He did. A radio station in Atlanta ran the story. “They called it the ‘hug that was heard around the world’.”

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There are so many tales like that. “A checkout girl in Walmart asked a passenger from Chicago if he wanted a shower. At her house, she told hime to have a nap and watch TV while she went back to work. ‘But I could steal everything,’ he said. She shrugged: ‘It can all be replaced.’”

“You want to go to Dover Fault?” Oz asks. I do. This famous beauty spot is where two of the passengers, Nick and Diane, the Come from Away love story, realise they are falling for each other. As we approach the viewpoint, someone yells excitedly, “It’s Oz!”

British actor Ed Tunningley, on a trip to Gander with his mother, Clare, is playing Oz in the Cunard cruise line production of Come from Away.

“Well, thanks for calling,” Oz feigns offence. “Good to see you’re medium chubby like me.” They chat, they hug, it’s a moment of serendipity.

“Is it still the same?” I ask as we head back to Gander. “A few years ago, a plane had engine problems on Christmas Eve. There weren’t enough taxis, so the locals showed up to take all the passengers to hotels. The restaurants were closed the next day, so they took everyone a Christmas dinner.” That’s a yes then.

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In the afternoon I drive to the neighbouring community of Appleton. I’ve booked the ‘Meet the Flynns’ experience. Derm Flynn was the mayor of Appleton back then, and he and his wife Dianne took in six passengers.

“They arrive strangers but by day two they’re friends and by the time they leave they’re family,” he smiles.

For the past few years, they’ve been opening their home again to visitors, sharing their memories of 9/11 and how the musical came about.

“We were apprehensive about how they were going to portray our story, but halfway through the first number everyone was on their feet applauding, the actors were crying, the audience was crying,” Derm says as we sit having tea and biscuits in their front room.

The show opened in Toronto and was a sell-out, breaking records. Then they took it to New York, and the rest is history. The living room wall is covered in posters from around the world signed by cast members.

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Before I leave, we head down the road to the Derm Flynn Riverfront Peace Park where there’s another piece of steel from the Twin Towers. “It’s a place where people can reflect and pray.”

I saw Come from Away on Broadway 10 years ago, but taking my seat that evening in Gander’s Joseph R Smallwood Arts and Culture Centre is a pinch-me-moment.

There’s a standing ovation at the end, but I’m not just clapping for the cast.

“It’s not about 9/11,” Oz had told me. “It’s about 9/12”.

Lucy McGuire travelled courtesy of Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism and Atlantic Canada

How to get there

WestJet flies direct from Gatwick to St John’s Newfoundland with return fares from around £390

What to do

The Meet the Flynns experience costs CAD $70 (£50) per person. Visit former Appleton mayor, Derm Flynn and his wife Dianne at their home and chat about how their story inspired the musical Come from Away.

Rhonda Lane has lived in Gander for over 30 years. She gives tours of Gander International Airport, where she also works, and of the town of Gander itself. Rhonda Lane Tours cost CAD $30 (£21) per person.