Singer Kellylee Evans says lightning at the teen wellness fair gave her a superpower: resilience

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Ottawa’s Kellylee Evans shared her epic story of resilience on Sunday — how she overcame debilitating anxiety, a crush and a traumatic brain injury — to build her Juno-winning career as a jazz singer and songwriter.

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Evans, 47, told an audience of high school students that resilience is her superpower and she earned it the hard way.

« I was hit by the lighting and survived, » Evans said at a teen wellness fair at Ben Franklin Place hosted by student volunteers for A Ripple Effect.

Members of the local service group bond and spend time with children who have been affected by trauma, disability or mental illness.

Evans told the audience that she used her super power to complete all three challenges.

Born in Scarborough to a single mother, Evans grew up in a home of high expectations: « My mother used to tell me, ‘You can be whatever you want as long as it’s a lawyer or a doctor or an engineer.’ ”

She excelled academically and dabbled in sports and other extracurricular activities, although her favorite pursuits involved singing and drawing. She went to Carleton University and earned two bachelor’s degrees: one in legal studies and another in English literature.

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« I was living with incredible ulcers – I didn’t even know I was living with anxiety at the time, » she said. « I just knew that my only goal in life was to make my parents happy. »

Evans began a master’s degree in legal philosophy. His ulcers got worse. Then, while still a student, Evans learned that her mother had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. She died six months later.

« For me, as an only child, it rocked my world, » she said. For the first time in his life, Evans struggled in school. Suddenly, the ideas of philosophers like Jürgen Habermas and Henry David Thoreau no longer mattered. « I kept thinking, ‘Who cares? My mother is dead. It was hard to care about abstract ideas when my heart was broken.

Evans married, had a child, and pursued her master’s degree before she had an epiphany: she could do anything for her own happiness. She could drop out of the master’s program and pursue a career as a singer.

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« It was so freeing, » Evans said. His ulcers disappeared. Her career as a jazz singer began.

After winning second place at a prestigious international jazz singing competition, Evens released her debut album, which was nominated for a Juno Award. In 2011, she won the Juno for best vocal jazz album of the year for her album Nina.

In May 2013, as his career blossomed, Evans suffered an extraordinary setback. During a thunderstorm, she had almost finished washing the dishes when lightning struck her house and went through her plumbing system. Her hand was in contact with the metal sink and she was electrocuted by conduction.

“My body never really worked the same way again,” she said.

Evans spent six months in a wheelchair, suffered memory loss and severe left-sided weakness. At first, she couldn’t cut her own food or hold a microphone.

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« I remember being so angry, » she said.

Evans wanted herself back on stage, but in November 2015, after returning from an overseas tour, she collapsed getting out of the bathtub and hit her head. The concussion she suffered led to another two years of recovery: her dizziness was so severe that she often had trouble getting out of bed.

She has since resumed her singing career and been nominated for another Juno, but Evans said the challenges in her life taught her that she needed to be honest about her feelings, admit when she needed to. help and be ready to accept it. Even superheroes, she told the audience, have their best week in a group.

Evans said she also learned to deliberately pursue happiness by making time for yoga, meditation, prayer, writing and bubble baths. She tries to listen to her body and her inner voice, Evans said, and recently started using an electric scooter to travel longer distances.

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« If you ask for help and reach out to others, you can get through just about anything, » Evans told his teenage audience.

Rabbi Chaim Mendelsohn, director of A Ripple Effect, said the service program’s teen volunteers bring friendship to troubled children in the community. But it’s often the teenagers, he says, who get the most out of the experience.

“Suddenly they are helping someone and lifting them up in a special way,” he said.

Mimi Braiter, a 12th grade student at Sir Robert Borden Secondary School and president of A Ripple Effect, has been volunteering with the organization for four years. « It changed my outlook on helping others, » said Braiter, who worked with three children, ages 2, 4 and 7, who had recently lost their mothers.

Braiter, 17, played games, did crafts and went to the park with the children on weekly visits.

« It taught me to look at the world from a different perspective, to put myself in their shoes, » she said. « It’s meaningful to come back every week and help out. »