When confronted with a terrible reality at home, a young girl from Ontario turned to music for strength.
She was forced to take on the role of caretaker once tragedy struck, putting her aspirations on hold in order to support her family.
Years later, her voice—once a personal haven—has inspired others all around the world.
In Timmins, Ontario, she was born into a family that was struggling to make ends meet.
There wasn’t much room for improvement because of her mother’s sadness and her stepfather’s low-paying reforestation job.
Being one of five kids, she soon learnt to live without and turned to her love of singing for comfort.
From an early age, singing in bars gave her a sense of self-worth and escape. However, nothing could prepare her for the responsibilities that would arise when she was left to raise her siblings by herself at an early age.
A Childhood in Poverty and Strife
She has experienced life without it since she was a young child.
Her family frequently lacked basic necessities like food, heating, and even dependable lights because money was always tight.
She soon realized that her life was very different from her peers’.
When she didn’t have lunch at school, she would observe her friends and wonder whether they would leave an apple unfinished in the hopes that she would eat it later.
Instead of telling her teacher that she didn’t have lunch, she would say that it was “in her locker” or that she had “forgotten it.” She turned to music as a kind of escape from these hard realities, particularly the ongoing hunger.