The Book

When Kim Freeland discovered in the spring of 2021 that her beloved step-grandmother had dementia, her whole world began to close in around her. It felt like a repeat of a tragedy that had unfolded less than a decade earlier, in the icy streets of Toronto.

Determined to break the cycle of the past, Kim and “Auntie Dee” swiftly embarked on a stunning journey that took them first to the glacial majesty of Newfoundland’s icebergs, and then around the world. From Pompeii, to the Parthenon, to the limestone karsts of Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, Kim and her 95-year-old grandmother discovered the beauty of forging new memories, and the liberation of forgetting earthly constraints, if only for a moment.

In a story that has been chronicled by the Toronto Star, How I Kidnapped My Grandmother is a journey of love, loss and adventure: a meditation on what we owe ourselves, and each other, when time begins to slip away.