Newspaper Article In "The Okanagan Saturday"
OCTOBER 31, 1998

Heartfelt Songs Warm The Soul
by JIM JUDD

One Kelowna mother's anguish has turned into a personal crusade to comfort grieving families the world over.

And, fittingly enough, Karen Ritchey does it through song in a CD of personal selections entitled "I'll Meet You In The Morning"

Ritchey has dedicated the album, which was completed in July, to her own Baby Kyle who was stillborn 10 years ago.

"This Is the kind of music that brought me comfort," explained Ritchey who has had no formal training as a singer but followed her own intuition in recording the CD.

"These are songs of comfort and peace to people who have lost someone or who are low in spirit or who might even be depressed.

"A lot of seniors have told me they find these songs inspirational and comforting as well," she added. "There’s a lot of promise."

The album, recorded at Breakthrough Studios in Kelowna, has already gone out to dozens of grief-stricken families including parents whose high-school-aged son was killed in the recent SwissAir Crash off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Each of the 13 tracks on the CD reflects Ritchey’s feelings about comfort, hope and peace.

"If you don’t have those hopes and feelings yourself you can't share them effectively with people," she said.

"Everyone I've sent these to has been very responsive and that makes it worth while."

Ritchey and her family bore the cost of recording and producing her CD, but since its release the album has sold more than 500 copies and almost 300 more in the cassette format.

"My mom cashed her (retirement savings plan) to pay for this," she admitted.

Most sales have come simply by word-of-mouth while a number of friends and family members have bought their own copies as a way of supporting her efforts.

Nevertheless, with word of its comforting qualities quickly circulating, the Kelowna woman will no doubt end up pressing more copies somewhere down the road.

What’s more, the success of her efforts has already sparked a personal interest in making at least one more album, possible more.

"I just wanted to share the gift I’ve been given and do it in a very constructive way," she said. "We were pretty happy with our first effort and we’ve sold almost half of them already – and it just came out in July."

There is something of a chronology to the arrangement of the selections, too, says Ritchey.

"There are hidden valleys and a thread of hope and I hoped it would end in peace," she explained.

Drawing on local musicians, the music is top-quality, while Ritchey’s vocal ability is similar to that of Ann Murray. Although she is flattered at the comparison, it wasn’t her intention to sound so much like Canada’s most famous lady of music.

"There’s been no singing lessons – it’s just something I’ve enjoyed and I’ve had a lot of support," she said. "It’s just something people have asked for."

Nevertheless, it’s the underlying message that Ritchey hopes to convey, not the quality of her voice or the economic viability of each recording.

"I’ve started a ministry whereby I send tapes out to people who have lost children," she said. She gets names and addresses of many of these people from the Internet Web Site called "M.E.N.D.".

Ritchey and her husband were living in Yellowknife, NWT 10 years ago when she was pregnant with Kyle. They were flown to Vancouver where she gave birth. They returned to Yellowknife – childless – and found an almost total lack of support.

Since then, Ritchey has vowed never to let anyone face that kind of pain alone.

"I’ve been writing to moms for 10 years that I’ve never met," she said. "You just have a common bond and they just appreciate a stranger reaching out."

Her unsolicited comfort touches the hearts of virtually everyone she reaches out to. The result has been a lot of communication with grieving parents around the world and a lot of satisfaction on her part.

Of course she and husband Landon are raising a family of three children, too.

They adopted two children before having another of their own three years ago – a surprise birth – according to Ritchey.

Meanwhile, she is currently making personal choices for perhaps another album of inspirational music and has some plans in the back of her mind for a more personally-satisfying music direction.

"In the New Year I may do something else," she said. "I’d love to do a Christmas album."