The event, and the musical, that changed their lives forever
Bonds that formed on Sept. 11, 2001, and inspired hit musical Come From Away are as strong as ever
Beverley Bass was the pilot of an American Airlines plane, the 36th of 38 flights diverted to Gander, N.L., on Sept. 11, 2001. Hers is one of many stories dramatized in the hit musical Come From Away.
Bass had seen the show 97 times. Sunday’s redcarpet premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, with a new, all-Canadian cast was her 98th.
“There are still times when I’ll tear up. My face hurts at the end of the show because I have a constant smile the whole time,” Bass said in an interview.
Many of the 7,000 who unexpectedly landed in Newfoundland that day had their lives altered by the generosity of their hosts, but Come From Away has given a certain celebrity status to those whose stories are told by the musical.
“I receive messages and emails every day from people all over and now I’ve even gotten involved in school projects because . . . I can’t say no to the kids,” Bass says. “The good news is they’ve all gotten A-pluses.”
Bass also has become involved in volunteering, including taking part in relief efforts last summer when Hurricane Harvey hit south Texas, which took the lives of 107 Americans and caused an estimated $125 billion (U.S.) in damage.
“I would like to think I’ve always been a good person, but this (experience in Gander) has changed me immensely and what it has made me realize is that there’s never a bad time to be kind to people,” she said.
Bass returned to Toronto last week along with several other real-life “plane people” to see the show again and to renew friendships forged during a time of fear and turmoil.
U.K. native Nick Marson and Texan wife Diane found true love that still endures after staying in the small community of Gambo, about 40 kilometres from Gander.
The couple are pleased with how the show portrays their unexpected romance.
“The first time we saw the show, we had no idea. We’d given this young couple (writers David Hein and Irene Sankoff) our story . . . and we had no idea what they’d do to us, but they did us well, they did us proud. It really did happen the way you see it,” Nick Marson said.
“It’s like renewing your vows in the theatre every night,” Diane Marson added.
Tom McKeon, whose character in the show is a cynical New Yorker named Bob, said he’s pleased with how he’s portrayed.
“It’s been phenomenal. I’m really honoured. The tone of everything about it is upbeat and pleasurable,” McKeon said, adding he was pleased to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year when the play opened on Broadway.
Kevin Tuerff, who owned an environmental marketing company in Austin, Texas, said he decided to “pay it forward” a year later on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, and sub- sequent ones, giving his employees $100 to go out and perform random acts of kindness.
Tuerff also wrote a book last year called Channel of Peace: Stranded in Gander on 9/11 to satisfy the need expressed by many fellow Americans for more information about what happened in Gander. Most recently, he has become involved in helping refugees and immigrants.
“Being an American refugee — it’s taken me (many) years to reflect on this — but it’s now opened my eyes to the global refugee crisis. So now I’m personally very heavily involved in advocating through my church in helping immigrants and refugees,” Tuerff said.
Kevin Jung, Tuerff’s now former partner, said he’s also become more involved in volunteerism.
“I used to be a guy who would write a cheque and send it away. I’m still a write-a-cheque guy, but now I actually get off my butt and do something physical,” Jung said.
“(The experience) changed the way I look at volunteerism and community, and who’s a stranger and who’s just been put in unfortunate circumstance. The bottom line is: just be kind. It doesn’t cost even a penny to be kind, but it can change someone’s life.”
Hannah O’Rourke lost her eldest child, Kevin, a Brooklyn firefighter trained in rescue operations, on Sept. 11. His body was recovered almost two weeks later in the rubble of the twin towers.
But O’Rourke made a friend for life in Beulah Davis, whom she met at the Royal Canadian Legion where O’Rourke stayed and where Davis still volunteers.
Davis is also a character in the show and the two women, who call each other every two weeks or so, have been reunited in Toronto in recent days.
“I met Beulah . . . and she took me under her wing. She’s unbelievable, there’s nobody like Beulah; there’s only one Beulah, she’s full of love. She has so many jokes and yarns, Beulah,” O’Rourke said.
“I said to her, ‘until we do part, we’re stuck with one another like glue.’ We talk together all the time, which is great,” she said.
The loss of her son has taken a heavy toll, O’Rourke added.
“I (used to be) more outgoing and full of the devil and that. Ah, there’s not a minute of the day that you don’t think, ‘now he would be enjoying his children and his grandchildren,’ ” O’Rourke said.
“But I will never forget Gander.”