* Some small spoilers ahead
This is a tough one to review. Another reviewer called the author an unreliable narrator, and while I wouldn’t go that far, I did find it hard to sympathise at times.
There are always two sides to a story and I try hard not to form opinions without hearing both. I found some of what the author was saying hard to believe and contradictory, for example, in the beginning she was adamant that Teresa could not live with her, then at some point it became an honour for her have her sister live with her.
It is also hard for me to believe anyone could think it would be in the best interests for a 91 year old to be the caretaker of an adult with Down syndrome. I feel like we were not being told the whole story and only shown the glossy side of Teresa and how wonderful she was. Only once was it mentioned that her personal hygiene was an issue, I wondered why it would be considered acceptable for her elderly father to be left to deal with that.
Her father was also portrayed as being of sound mind and not at all frail, but there were mentions of her siblings receiving up to 30 calls a day over trivial matters. I guess what I’m saying is it’s hard to form a full picture of exactly what was going on with only one viewpoint.

That said, if I take the author at her word, I was absolutely furious with the treatment of both Teresa and her father. How can people who supposedly love them, not include them and respect their wishes for their future in the decision making process? It blew my mind how callous they became and the lengths they were prepared to go, to get their own way. It seemed to end up being more a battle to beat Frankie at any cost rather than what was best for their loved ones, with little concern for the emotional wellbeing of those concerned. What was their motivation if not financial? The lesson I took away from this was to be very, very careful about giving anyone power of attorney.

While I enjoyed the story and found myself cheering on Bill and Franke, I found the book to be quite repetitive and felt frustrated when the author repeated herself in case we missed it the first time. I feel the story just stops without any real resolution. After the fight her siblings put up, I doubt it all just stopped, but to find out, I need to read the next book. I’m very interested in knowing what became of both Teresa and her father but not enough to read a further instalment.

With thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for my copy of the audiobook for review.

This was an interesting memoir as a family struggles to figure out the best route of care for their sibling with Down syndrome while their father’s health is deteriorating. I listened to the audio version of this book. For the first time, I think I would have preferred a single narrator rather than a full cast. I believe it would have made the story a bit more impactful since this is a memoir. I found parts of this story very frustrating as the siblings fought over Teresa’s care without her input, but I do I appreciate the message this book represents. I know we’re only getting one side of the story, but I was left with many questions of how some of the decisions were made and what the relationship between all the siblings looked like after the book ended. This book is a good representation of the struggle many families of individuals with disabilities have gone through. Individuals with disabilities deserve a say in their care as much as anyone else does. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of Freeing Teresa in exchange for an honest review.

Teresa is the seventh of seven children and she was born with Down Syndrome. At the time, in the early 1960s, the conventional medical advice for babies like Teresa was to be institutionalized. Untraditionally, her parents decided to keep Teresa at home and raise her with the rest of the family, just as they were doing with their other children. Teresa had a good life, living at home, going to school, and growing up in the community. She could read and make wise decisions, but could not live alone. It’s now Forty-nine years later, and Teresa’s mother has died. Even so, Teresa is living happily with her father and they have become a team. Dad is now in his nineties and is still in good health, both physically and mentally. But knowing his days are numbered, he has a long-term plan for Teresa. When it is no longer feasible for dad and Teresa to stay together, she would move in with her brother, who had promised to take her. Now, that brother was having second thoughts, so some of the other sisters come up with an alternate plan. They decided that Teresa should be put into a nursing, government-funded long-term care home.

Franke immediately objects, saying that Teresa is young and healthy and living with residents in their final days is not the right placement for a high functioning Down syndrome adult.

Working against Teresa’s case, was the commonly accepted fact in the medical community; people with Down syndrome are prone to early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Knowing this, some other siblings started worrying and talking about Teresa’s “strange behavior.” So, they had Teresa assessed by a care agency social worker. After meeting Teresa and listening to the stories of her siblings, it was concluded that Teresa was suffering from rapid cognitive decline. But the diagnosis was based on false information, simply proven wrong by the fact that Teresa has successfully lived for ten years in the community. Still, the unfounded diagnosis had a devastating effect on Teresa’s life. It was determined that Teresa was no longer capable to live without professional care and Teresa lost her right to decide where she lived.

Franke did did not believe any of this and Teresa’s way of life proved it. Franke and her husband offered to take Teresa into their home in an effort to stop the plan. But the siblings, who said they had all decision-making power and were acting as Teresa’s legal “guardians,” rejected Franke’s offer. Then, they took Teresa and had her put into a nursing home. The siblings did not tell what they were doing until it was actually happening. But four days later, Franke was able to manage Teresa’s discharge from Long-term care and brought her back home. That’s when the siblings called the police and family drama got truly ugly!

Bottom line Teresa was able to stay in the home with Franke and Bill.

Franke, Teresa and Bill have a lot of support in the disability community. They spent 10 years preparing this tumultuous memoir with the world.

Warning the story may infuriate you as there are a lot of sides to the issues.

I am so happy Teresa is spending her life in the home of her family. .

If you are like me and wanted to know more about this special woman, here is a link.

https://www.teresaheartchild.com/

I really enjoy reading memoirs and this one kept me riveted even though I was not a fan of a cast of narrators. The dad’s voice seemed especially stilted. Teresa’s voice though was spot on.

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to listen to this audio version of this ARC.

Really enjoyed it and felt the pain of the dad. Sad that families can end up like this but it was informative and moving.

Definitely one I would recommend

Sometimes I find memoirs very difficult to review and this is one of them. It really bugged me that Franke would not even listen to her siblings' option of the nursing home. To me it felt like her siblings had been doing all the care for her father and sister and then all of a sudden Franke decided to come in and change everything. I'm not saying that is what really happened but that was the way it came across to me. After this issue is out of the way, I did enjoy the last half of the book more and I do want to read the follow up book to see how things end up for Teresa.

I listened to this one. It has a cast of characters which I normally love but I am not sure in this case. Since it is a memoir, it felt like it should just be the one voice to me.
Thank you to NetGalley for the audio arc!

This book is very interesting. As an audio book, it is very engaging to listen to because in addition to a narrator to read the part of the author, Franke, there were also narrators reading lines of dialogue to voice different characters in the novel. I loved that an actress with Down syndrome was reflected to read Teresa’s lines.

The main crux of the book is essentially a family dispute that spins out of control and results in institutionalization for one family member and threatened institutionalization for another. Ageism and ableism run rampant.

One thing that I felt was missing at the end was information about whether Franke, her father, and her sister had reconciled with the other members of her family. I also felt that the author failed to really explain why her siblings behaved the way they did. It isn’t very clear to me whether she doesn’t know why or doesn’t care, but I don’t think I would be able to let that question go even after everything was settled. I also thought that it got a little repetitive - the author and her siblings sort of went around and around in circles for much of the book. As infuriating as I found their assumptions about the lives worth living that they were deciding to limit, I did feel like it could have been cut down a little bit.

This book reminded me of a documentary that blows your mind. You can't believe the injustice that some people are so quick to lay out.

Teresa is a woman living with her elderly father. She has Down Syndrome and she lives a full life. But lately her older siblings are worrying about what will happen to Teresa when their father passes. Franke is an environmental activist and she is dedicated to Teresa and her father living a happy life. The other siblings want to put Teresa in a nursing home despite Franke's research showing that this will not give Teresa a fulfilling life.

It was hard to hear the reactions/responses from the other siblings. But I also wondered how it took so long for Franke to offer her own home. But! That is a really easy judgement for me to make when I have never been that position. I would read more about their story!

The book is narrated by many people and it helps to show what it is like having a bunch of people talking, sometimes yelling, at once. The full cast: Jackie Blackmore, Lauren Potter, Dayleigh Nelson, Cynthia Potvin, Bill Mackie, Paula Hoffmann, Rob Cottingham, Sidika Larbes, Geoff Sugiyama, Laurel Bailey, Divina Soriano-Leacock, Justin Smallbridge, and Roshni Kashyap.

If you are interested in learning more about the fight against ableism, I recommend checking out Freeing Teresa. Thank you to NetGalley, Franke James, Teresa Heartchild, Billiam James, all the narrators and The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc. I have written this review voluntarily.

A true story of a family at odds with what to do with Teresa, their sister with down syndrome and their elderly father after their mom dies.

I have worked in group homes and school with people with disabilities all of my adult life. While I think group homes can be a wonderful answer for some, I was rooting for Franke, the only sibling who didn't want to have Teresa and her father go to homes, separating them against their will and the lengths she took to do so.

I enjoyed this book and the the complexity of having family who don't agree with one another. I also thought it was sad that some may have been doing what they thought was best for them and not Teresa.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.

I picked up this book to get a glimpse into the world of ableism, down syndrome, and other intellectual differences. The inside look into the struggles of advocating for basic human rights, such as where they live, was eye-opening. Systems to protect individuals can be, are, often biased. We all lose in a world where only certain types of people have the right to speak up.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC.

Title: Freeling Theresa
Author: Franke James and Billiam James
Format: 🎧
Narrators: Jackie Blackmore, Dayleigh Nellson, Bill Mackie, Paila Hoffman, Rob Cottingham, Sidika Laarbes, Geoff Sugiyama, Laurel Bailey, Divina Soriano-Leacock, Justin Smallbridge and Kashiyap
Publisher: The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc/Independent Book Publishers Association (IMPA) Members’ Audiobooks
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Audiobook Release Date: August 13, 2024
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pages 344

I was drawn to this book as I remember how excited my niece as well as the rest of the family was when we found out she was having a girl after two boys. Also remember when she was told the baby had Down syndrome and it was early enough so she could terminate the pregnancy. She didn’t have to think about it – No, of course she would not!
I have watched this adorable little girl grow - become an active teen. She brings joy, love and hope to everyone she meets.

Oh Yes! I was sure this was going to be an emotional story.

This book is written by Franke James and it started ten years ago. In 2013,
Franke and her husband, Billiam James, set out to help Franke’s younger sister Teresa who has Down syndrome to, regain her decision-making rights, and not be placed into a nursing home. Teresa stayed with their father but after he died; the other siblings, who were acting as Teresa’s “guardians.” And insisted they had all the power and wanted Teresa to be placed into the government care system.
I want to thank NetGalley and The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc/Independent Book Publishers Association (IMPA) Members’ Audiobooks for this audiobook.
Audiobook Publishing Date was August 13, 2024.

"Freeing Teresa: A True Story about My Sister and Me" by Franke James is a non-fiction book. It is about the time when several siblings decided to move their adult sister with Down's Syndrome into a nursing home for elderly people. It is set in Canada and mostly happens in the 2010s.

The siblings claimed to be trying to do the right thing to find care for Teresa when they felt their father needed to go into a care home for dementia. One sister, Franke, was very busy in her career with traveling, so she missed some of the initial planning stages of this. When she did join in, she disagreed with the other siblings and thought the father should stay home with Teresa and they could care for each other. The other siblings went ahead with their plans to put both the father and sister, Teresa, into care homes.

The whole story left a very sour taste to me. I could see both sides of this issue, and it was disturbing to see the family drama raise to such a high level of negativity. I do not think it was right for them to put Teresa in a home without any warning to her, nor the father. The family knew there was a better option for Teresa to move in with Franke and Bill, but bad blood made things very nasty.

It did seem as though the father needed more help. He had moments of lucidity and other times when he wasn't. This need was not seen or accepted by Franke.

The audiobook was narrated by Jackie Blackmore, Lauren Potter, Dayleigh Nelson, Cynthia Potvin, Bill Mackie, and several others. They did a terrific job with the audio!

The message of this book is that disabled people have rights about where they live and should be included in all care decisions.

Thank you to Netgalley, The James Gang, Iconoclasts, Inc., Independent Book Publishers Association, and Franke James for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I think this is a good book and a really sad but true representation of how family members can rift during important decisions. I am only giving 3.5 stars because it seems so unbeleivably one sided with Frankes account of what happened feeling very emotional and not always true. I know it is a biography of events but it just felt too fresh still and turned the siblings into evil villains which I am sure they weren't.
Thank you netgalley for letting me listen and read this book for review.

Thank you for this early copy .Being a nurse makes me want to read all about disorders and disabilities.This was a gut wrenching story .The characters flowers very well .I enjoyed the narrator .This is a must read for all families dealing with disabilities and the law.More books need to be told like this one.

The book centers around Teresa, a young woman with Down syndrome who lives with her elderly father after the passing of her mother. While most of her siblings want to place her in full-time care at a nursing home, her sister is determined to keep her out of such facilities. Tragically, thousands of young people with disabilities still find themselves in similar situations. Based on a true story, the author draws from her own experience of helping her sister leave a nursing home. I listened to the audiobook version.

Thanks to #TheJamesGang for the audio copy of #FreeingTeresa via #NetGalley.

Enter Theresa, an adult with Down syndrome, who lives with her aging father. Franke, one of Theresa’s five sibling and self-appointed “black sheep” of the family, challenges the rest of their siblings to question their own prejudices, and answer the toughest question of all, “Where will Theresa live once Dad goes?”

This is a family at odds, faced with navigating the challenging Canadian medical system and addressing the moral dilemma faced by many families facing with similar decisions. This is also a family who cares, even if they don’t agree on what that should looks like.

Narrated by a full cast, the reading style brought listeners deep into the intense family dynamic. I appreciated that they included a woman with Down syndrome to narrate Teresa’s story. However, the story was very dialogue heavy and the pacing felt slower than I would have liked. Summarizing more sections would have helped to carry the story on without losing the key parts of the storyline.

this audiobook was absolutely so moving and heart wrenching!!! i completely loved the narration and vulnerability of this story. tear jerker for sure. 5/5 stars