By Yasmine Peru – STAR Writer—
Veteran singer Sanchez is mourning the death of his mother, Bridgette Gardner Ivey, who passed away on Tuesday morning in Canada. She was 74.
Sanchez, whose given name is Kevin Jackson, was too distraught to speak with THE STAR, but his wife Monica shared the details.
“Right now Kevin has no words. He is not talking to anybody; him just down. We are all saddened, but in a way we are thankful, because she is not suffering any more,” she said.
She added, “Mom was feeling too much pain … the doctors had to give her the morphine through the IV process to help with the pain. They had diagnosed her with cancer and had given her three to six months to live. From Saturday, she stopped talking and we were hoping that things would get better; but we got the call early Tuesday morning that she had passed.”
Ivey, who migrated to Canada decades ago, was the mother of five, with Sanchez being the oldest. A long-standing Apostolic Church member, she was one of the evangelists at her church in Canada.
“She was a devout Christian and all her children grew up in the church. It was in the church that Kevin’s talent was first recognized, and singing gospel songs is always special to him. He and his mother shared a special bond and any time we had shows in Canada, we would always make the time to go and see her and sometimes overnight at her home. It was always a pleasure,” Jackson said.
Sanchez started his professional career over three decades ago, but long before that he had been singing on the junior and senior choirs of the Rehoboth Apostolic Church. It was therefore not surprising that one of his early hits was the Christian favorite, Amazing Grace. In recognition of his impact in gospel in 2003, Sanchez was inducted into the International Gospel Hall of Fame.
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