“The Horror of 9-11 and the Strangers Who Dropped in from the Sky” will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 19, at the Champaign County Historical Society museum on East Lawn Avenue.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the country was under attack and all non-military aircraft were ordered to land. Many have read Jim Defede’s best seller, The Day The World Came To Town, about the airliners diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, on that day.
The Historical Society will host Columbus resident Shirley Brooks-Jones, who left Frankfurt, Germany, early that morning only to find herself and her fellow passengers heading for Canada, owing to what the captain advised was a “slight emergency.”
Despite the horror of the terrorist attacks of 9-11, her life-long belief in the innate goodness of people was reinforced by her experiences in the tiny town of Lewisporte, Newfoundland, where she was cared for by perfect strangers who became life-long friends.
