A Sister’s Call to Action
Helen Ries, co-founder of Siblings Canada, summed up her reading experience of Freeing Teresa as “riveting.” She said it was a “call to action for siblings” for when our parents are no longer able to care for our siblings with disabilities.
A challenging story for all siblings
James’ rollercoaster story is challenging for siblings as it is about a crisis they may eventually face over the hot issues of housing, finance, human rights and family dynamics.
For the webinar, Franke and Helen were joined by psychologist Yona Lunsky. It was a unique interview, as each woman is a sister of a sibling with a developmental disability. (Teresa Heartchild makes appearances in the interview in surprising ways.)
Watch the video interview at Siblings Canada.
Franke James on getting the call to action
“When the big crisis in Freeing Teresa rocked our world, it was my call to action,” said Franke James. “That invisible sibling bond propelled me forward to help Teresa. Just as Helen Ries did so remarkably for her brother Paul. And U.K. author Manni Coe did for his brother Reuben. I think siblings are like Krazy Glue, and stories like ours show that we can be a force for good and transformative growth.”
“A very, very tough situation”
Excerpt from the Siblings Canada interview:
Yona Lunsky: So there’s a difference between providing care or making decisions for someone and then just really knowing someone and having that more fulsome kind of connection about that person and who they are day-to-day, and what matters. There are different ways we can relate to our siblings, aren’t there?
Franke James:
Yes. The thing is that it was a very, very tough situation to have all of my siblings with the exception of Teresa thinking that she should go into long-term care. And me being the one who says, “No, that’s not right, you can’t do that. What about her human rights?” But I just had to come back to the truth that I knew. And what I saw from my friendship with Teresa, and it was that she was healthy and she was active and she had a lot of things that she could do in her life and I wanted to help her. And my other siblings didn’t feel the same way.
Helen Ries:
What strikes me about your story, it feels very close to my story where I suddenly became my brother Paul’s carer in a crisis. And that seems to be also what’s happened to you. And I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that. What about that crisis made you change your mind about becoming Teresa’s carer? Because initially you weren’t ready to do that.
Watch the video interview at Siblings Canada.
