A dark day in history will be commemorated across the province on Friday.
Many still remember the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when two planes hit the Twin Towers and brought down the building.
Nova Scotians watched from afar as smoke rose from the rubble, from the Pentagon, and from a field in Pennsylvania on that day.
Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell says in a post on social media that “Canadians stepped up to help thousands of people whose flights were grounded.”
“We opened our hearts and our homes, as we so often do,” Mitchell wrote.
Halifax Regional Police are remembering the first responders who ran in to help and worked through the long recovery efforts.
“We remember their courage, sacrifice and service and stand with all those whose lives were forever changed,” the force wrote on social media.
Friday afternoon, the Halifax International Airport Authority will commemorate the anniversary at the Halifax airport.
Many are returning to Gander, Newfoundland, where thousands were stranded after the attacks. The story of the generosity of the small town grew in popularity in large part due to a Broadway musical called Come From Away.
Thirty-eight planes landed in Gander with 7,000 passengers who stayed in the area for five days.
Wendy Woodland with the Salvation Army says their organization helped feed them. Gander has been buzzing for the last couple of days to mark the tragedy, with an event Friday afternoon.
She says it is hard to believe it’s been 25 years.
“We’ve actually heard that said over the last couple of days,” says Woodland. “There’s a lot of untold stories being shared.”
But there is also a lot of pride.
“Saying, you know, we stepped up to help the world,” adds Woodland.
The Halifax Regional Municipality has shared a video from a 2002 ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany. There, the Lufthansa airline named a plane Halifax-Gander in honour of the hospitality shown to passengers who landed in those cities and others.
It includes comments from Petra Roth, mayor of Frankfurt at the time, who was also stranded on Sept. 1, 2001, and former Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly.
After all the things said done to Canada—after the trade war, tariffs, threats of annexation, the “insults levied against our armed forces and veterans,” and after President Donald Trump claimed to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America—Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says he asked himself if we would help the grounded passengers from the U.S. in the same way today as we did 25 years ago.
“I have thought about that. And I know the answer. Of course we would,” Houston wrote in a statement. “We would open the doors. We would make the meals. We would find beds. When you see someone drowning, you don’t ask where they live or how they voted before you throw them a line.”
He says that as we remember, we also honour the victims and the first responders who died in the recovery efforts.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will never forget and we stand with our American neighbours in “mourning, remembrance and solidarity.”
