What: Lorinda Stewart and Amanda Lindhout launch One Day Closer: A Mother’s Quest to Bring Her Kidnapped Daughter Home
When: Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.
Where: Bolen Books, Hillside Centre
Lorinda Stewart said it was pure love and determination that fuelled her during the 460 days she worked tirelessly to help free her daughter, Amanda Lindhout, from Somalian kidnappers.
“It was love, love for my daughter that sustained me,” said Stewart, 61, from her home in Krestova, near Nelson.
Lindhout was a freelance journalist working with her friend, Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, when they were kidnapped outside Mogadishu on Aug. 23, 2008 and held for ransom for more nearly 16 months.
During that time, Stewart shifted from working a low-wage job in a quiet life to becoming a full-time top-secret negotiator with her daughter’s kidnappers for the RCMP.
When the federal government stepped back its help, Stewart pushed on with a private contractor, her ex-husband (Lindhout’s father) and Brennan’s family to get their kids released.
Her recently released book, One Day Closer: A Mother’s Quest to Bring Her Kidnapped Daughter Home, is about the experience and the healing that came after. On Wednesday, Stewart and Lindhout will be in Victoria at Bolen’s Books to talk about the book and start a national tour.
“My hope is that it inspires people and shows that love can move mountains,” said Stewart. “Over history women have had no choice except to be strong. What happened to me was fairly typical of most mothers — I was able to hold myself together until she was released.”
Stewart’s book will be of particular interest to anyone who read Lindhout’s extraordinary account of her kidnapping in the 2014 international bestseller, A House in the Sky (with Sara Corbett).
In One Day Closer, Stewart fills in the gaps of what was happening (or not happening) in Canada to bring her daughter home, how she and the families coped and how it felt as a parent to make it through such a traumatic experience.
She doesn’t hold back on criticizing the bureaucracy and secrecy of the government in working to free her daughter, but also recognizes the individual officers who supported her.
She said she hopes that if anyone finds themselves in a similar scenario, they get from her book the message that, “There are other options and investigators,” said Stewart, who now supports other families in hostage-taking crises. “I would also hope for more transparency — for the families.”
Much of the book details the agonizing phone calls between Stewart and a man named Adam, who was negotiating on behalf of the kidnappers in Somalia. Stewart had to be firm but endearing, following strict scripts from the RCMP. She was told when she could answer calls, some of which were her daughter pleading for help and saying she was being tortured.
“I get asked, ‘Why would you keep reliving this horror?’ she said. “But it’s not where I live. It’s an experience we went through and survived. It’s a part of us, but it doesn’t define us.”
The man Stewart spoke to was later revealed by an RCMP sting to be Ali Omar Ader. He was on trial in an Ontaria Supreme Court this month facing kidnapping charges. A judge is expected to issue a decision on the case by December.
Stewart said her book was embargoed until after she testified at his trial, which she did two weeks ago. Her book was released a few days later.
“I didn’t realize how much tension was there until it had been lifted off me,” Stewart said, adding she’s often asked if the end of the trial will give her closure. “In my experience, closure comes with forgiveness, that point in time it no longer has that charge for. I’m actively working toward that.”
Stewart said the healing process is ongoing for her, but she does her best to feel grateful each day. Writing the book was cathartic, she said, adding some of it was written in Courtenay when she was house-sitting for a friend.
Stewart has other Island connections. She lived in Nanaimo for a short time as a teenager on a Children of God commune and more recently spent time in Victoria at the Biocybernaut Institute, which specializes in trauma. Stewart said she also keeps in touch with Brennan’s aunt, who lives on the Island, and contributed a large sum of money for his and Lindhout’s release.
Stewart said she’s looking forward to speaking about her book with her daughter. She said they’ve always communicated their love for each other and have typical mom and daughter dynamics, “But perhaps our realization that we came so close to such a huge loss, and did experience loss, gives us a better perspective on time and with each other,” she said. “We always think about we’re so lucky.”
