It was a quiet Saturday morning when Stacey Jariett took the stage at the South Cariboo Community Fall Fair, with perhaps only half a dozen people really watching the performance in front of the South Cariboo Rec. Centre in 100 Mile House.
She started her set with two Patsy Cline songs and Jariett’s sound reflects Cline’s in a lot of ways.
Unfortunately, so does her story, one of triumph turned to tragedy. Very few people will ever experience the sort of loss Jariett did in November 1997.
On her way to her mother’s house in Wheatley, Ontario, she was hit head-on by a drunk driver.
Her son R-Jay, who was almost three years old, died two days after the accident.
Her daughter, Shy-Lynn, nearly two at the time, survived.
Jariett says she spent the better part of the next two years comatose in a Windsor hospital.
“It was a blur. From what I’m told, I was informed of my son passing away half a dozen times.”
Needless to say, the damage was extensive.
“I broke every bone in my body. My left leg was severed and they reattached it. I’m titanium built from the waist down.
“They put my face back together, so I have titanium rods in my cheeks and my jaw is all clamped with screws.
“My tongue was reattached. My teeth were put back in. I had 37 hours of facial surgery.”
Jariett adds she feels lucky because she had one of the top maxillofacial surgeons in the country.
She was 23 at the time of the accident and had many musical accolades to her name and a promising country music career well underway.
She talks about sitting a few seats away from Amanda Wilkinson and Michele Wright at an awards ceremony in the early 1990s.
“At that point, I thought I was going to be doing this for a long time. It was only up from there. I was waiting for my big break in the U.S. [market] to be honest.”
Jariett grew up in southwestern Ontario in the Windsor area. She relocated to 100 Mile House last winter with her family, which includes her husband, Robert, daughters Shy-Lynn, 17, and Hunter, 14, and son, Noah, 7. She spent close to a decade in a wheelchair following the accident, but has started walking again.
“I got out of my wheelchair three years ago. I have now been a solid one year with no cane, no walker, no nothing. They said I’d never walk again, and I said I would.”
When asked to reflect on her life, Jariett takes a minute. There is much misfortune to consider.
“It’s a pretty unbelievable story,” she says, before brightening up with a thought. “A producer I’m working with right now, he said, ‘You’re destined to make it big because your life is already a made-for-TV movie. You’re not done. It’s coming and you’re going to be back where you need to be.”
Allan David Hill is a producer/songwriter based out of Sarnia, Ont. He recalls meeting Jariett and hearing her sing when she was a teenager.
“I thought she was the little girl with the big voice. She sounded like a Patsy Cline or something. It was pretty amazing.”
He was surprised when Jariett contacted him and told him she wants to restart her music career and record an album.
“I was blown away. It’s Shakespearean,” Hill says of her life.
“I told everybody I knew who remembered [what happened to her] and even people who didn’t remember.”
Asked about Jariett’s voice, Hill says “power” is the first thing that comes to mind.
“She’s got a lot of control and experience, which she didn’t have when she was young. She had the power, but not the quality in her voice. She has her own pitches and little licks and things she does that make her unique.
“But, she still has this amazing ability, when she takes a chorus off, it comes for a ride and she takes everybody for a ride with her.”
It’s an amazing story, Hill says, adding he’s glad to be a part of it.
“It feels incredibly right to be involved with this.”
He notes Jariett’s singing and her family might have a lot to do with her seemingly undeniable volition to persevere through such terrible circumstance.
Jariett agrees “faith” has a lot to do with it.
“I’m not a religious fanatic. However, as soon as I could open my eyes completely, I did read scriptures. That was the only thing in the nightstand beside my hospital bed. Just like your hotel rooms, there was a Bible.
“I started reading and between that and saying a lot of prayers. I got really strong and I really think that what’s got me through it. And good friends. And fans. The letters I received were amazing.”
Jariett has a suitcase filled with articles and fan letters from years ago.
She talks about one letter she received after her son died as being the hardest one she has ever read.
“I went to the mailbox and there was a decorated enveloped. I opened it and it was a letter from the family who received his heart. Their six-month old daughter received his heart.”
R-Jay’s organs were donated, and along with that little girl’s life, he helped save the lives of a little boy and a woman. The sacrifice is what Jariett has difficulty dealing with. A little girl is alive, but her little boy had to give away his heart.
“We saved three lives. And that’s remarkable that lives could be saved out of something so bad.”
In many respects, an important part of Jariett’s identity – her career, her music – was lost in that crash, too.
“Before I had kids, [music] was my life. I gave up a lot of stuff growing up to do it. I’m lost without it. I don’t know who I am without it.
“Being on stage is a totally different feeling. Even at the fair, it felt like I belonged there. I’m ready to let the world know who I am.”
Jariett’s new album is in the pre-production phase. They’ve yet to determine a release date, but it’s in the works.
“I can speak for her desire to sing again and what that means to her,” Hill says.
“I can see her being one of the ladies of country in Canada. Depending on what she wants to do, I don’t see any limitations on her.
“She has that ‘something’ and there’s been so much character added to her, it fills out all the natural abilities she has. The sky is the limit.”
Moving to 100 Mile House was about getting a fresh start, Jariett explains. Along with her re-establishing herself in the country music scene, she wants to connect with people in the community. She sang a song for R-Jay at the fair. His birthday was Sept. 8.
“I shared the story. I had a hard time. But, there was a group at the back that gave me a standing ovation. I didn’t know if anybody was really listening.”
