In the Air of an Afternoon Almost Past: A memoir of loss

by Peter Goers

These events, foretold, are of forty years ago. They were a surreal blur then and remain so. A fever dream that was tragically real. Even with the clarity of time, there is only distance. And the need to understand. I suppose it is a long overdue, long goodbye.

Grief is a great theme of our times and this is a memoir of grief in action.

On the tempest-tossed afternoon of 9 July 1982, Pan Am flight 759 crashed into a suburb of New Orleans shortly after takeoff. Eight people on the ground and all 145 passengers died, among them Peter’s parents, Margaret and Brian Goers, aged 50 and 52. Peter, busy with his promising career as a director, had not said goodbye.

Peter left for the US the next day, summoned to identify the bodies. These are his impressions of a strange and tragic journey full of potent memory, loss, poignant candour, wisdom and family redemption.

104 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2023

Reviews

[holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

"when you lose family members you find others like them. the need for people you once loved and were loved by can be transferred. I found other mothers and fathers and I tried to show them the love and honour I might have shown my parents, had they lived."

[Chris Wigg · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is never too late to reflect on a tragic personal event, and the impact it may have had on you and others. Thanks for sharing your story, and whilst so much was lost and a void never filled, you share how caring relationships helped and continue to do so.

[Jenny Esots · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in a cafe and on the train in one day, it is a quick read.
Peter Goers has reached an age where he is questioning his life and trying to make sense of a senseless loss. Both his parents were killed in a plane accident in 1982.
He writes plainly with a journalists and dramatists eye for what happened, some of which is lost in the recesses of his mind. Peter has plans to write more (apart from his Sunday Mail column) which I hope comes to fruition.

[Susan Belperio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very short book, where not one word is wasted by Adelaide's much loved Peter Goers. Eminently readable full of satirical humour as expected, despite the subject matter of his parents' untimely deaths in an aviation disaster in America. A very good way to spend a few hours.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard Mr Goers discuss this short memoir at Writer's Week earlier this year. Peter was a long time evening presenter at the local ABC as well as a mainstage performing and directing local theatrical productions. The book has him still trying to come to terms when as a young man, he learns from a phone call that both his parents were on a Pan Am plane that crashed on take-off from New Orleans heading to Las Vegas, where they were to attend a conference. Part of his grief is his continued feelings of guilt in that he insisted they visit New Orleans on this trip and that he turned his parents assistance in paying for him to tag along. As he states in the book and on the cover, the events of this date, 09 July, 1982 remain a surreal blur - a fever dream that was tragically real. He recounts the cruelty of the Pam Am lawyers and staff, who isolated all the passengers relations that were brought to New Orleans and told not to leave the room. They were ostensibly there to identify the remains but in reality to sign off on a meager compensation offer, but were refused requests to view the crash site and the remains. When he refused to sign off on two separate compensation offers, this act heightened the cruelty of the Pan Am minions. To add insult to injury, after returning home, he was sent a bill for his plane tickets, hotel and food costs. He learned that many of the other victims families received the same. And his biggest regret is that he failed to tell them goodbye on the day they departed on the ill fated trip. "Grief is a great theme of our times and this is a memoir of grief in action." I read this book in one day, I couldn't put it down.

[Robyn Sainsbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this memoir! I read it in an afternoon and wished it was either longer or had a sequel - as it was disappointing to come to the end already. Easy to read (clear and well written), compelling, poignant, painfully sad and yet lifted from becoming maudlin by many episodes of laugh out loud humor and examples of courage, compassion, and kindness in the many characters who crossed Peter's path during this tragedy. Highly recommend this beautiful memoir.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in one night. Harrowing how one event can fracture your whole life.