Singing with soul is often about the artist empathizing, imagining character so effectively the artist becomes a vessel for bigger concepts than the words and melody.
For all the saddest reasons, Todd Windley can now sing with soul. Twelve months ago, his three-year-old daughter Arwen died of cancer. Tonight, only days past the first anniversary, he will be on stage at Shiraz to use his talents as a musician to raise funds for the next families dealing with cancers that strike children.
"I'm starting to just donate everything to the pediatric cancer causes," said the longtime local musician. "I did that at the farmers market (a few weekends ago) and I couldn't believe the generosity; it just blew me away. It's a great little stage there. It's a different venue than I'm used to but I just keep my volume lower and I'm on my own instead of a whole band."
His band is Fueled By Whisky with singer Colin Monkley, bassist James Byron, drummer Tyler Keller and Windley on guitars. They do parties and dances, playing mostly popular rock covers. Their driving tempos and higher decibels are different than the mealtime menu Windley will serve from the Shiraz stage. He's not ready to rock yet, on a regular basis, although music has been a cathartic outlet for the aggrieved father, who still has to be a functional dad to Arwen's surviving twin Ayla and husband to equally pained wife Ashley Saunders.
He has been using guitars and a lot of adventure time in the great outdoors as a balm, until he builds up his foundations to work again at his job. He is an X-ray and CT scan technician at the imaging department of University Hospital of Northern B.C. Part of what he does each day is search for signs of cancer.
That's what tipped the family off that Arwen was ill in the first place. She had already been exhibiting some curious signs of imbalanced motor skills but then Windley saw something that rang all his alarm bells.
"She went to reach for her glass of milk, and clean missed it," he said. "And just the way that happened, and with the other balance issues in mind, my background kicked in and I knew it was bad. Really bad," he said.
They went straight to the hospital where the attending pediatrician agreed the signs were gravely concerning. Next it was into preliminary scans, which raised even stronger flags, then a flight to Vancouver the next morning for definitive treatment at B.C. Children's Hospital.
That's when the community's generosity began to flow towards the shocked young family. In their haste to get the first available flight, they accidentally booked themselves on the wrong date and didn't realize it until they were all at the airport watching the fully loaded plane fill up without them. But WestJet staff and some kindly passengers did some switching and got the four of them on the plane anyway.
Long story short, the news was as bad as a family can receive. The little girl went through rounds of treatments knowing it would not save her life, but it did buy them all some time together.
"They told us to just make some memories," he said. "It was horrible. Horrible."
That's when the next waves of community generosity came through for them. Donated money came flooding in so they could take time off their jobs. Some friends (Kathy and Scott Yeulet) donated unlimited use of their cabin by a local lake.
"It was just an opening of hearts and wallets," he said. "You're out of work, scared, sad, mad, and focused on your children. I basically left a message on my boss's phone, 'sorry, this is what's happening, I don't know when I'll be back.' We are so lucky to live where we do, so rich in lakes and forests and amazing people, so we went for it. We were out there all the time, doing things. Your priority just becomes everything it should be focused on anyway: your family."
They dove into the local region: camped, hiked, saw dinosaurs and waterfalls, and enjoyed each other's company to the fullest. Arwen passed away one year ago.
"She was so young, but she'd already been to the top of a mountain," Windley said.
While the family was ensconced in treatments in Vancouver, Windley did come home for one task he insisted on completing. He refused to miss a concert booked by Fueled By Whiskey months before any medical events happened in their lives. It was a benefit concert at the Treasure Cove Showroom, fundraising for Team Diller, one of the 24-hour Relay For Life groups in support of the Canadian Cancer Society.
"That was extremely difficult, but I felt I just had to do it, knowing what was coming for us," he said.
While he was away again, the remaining three band members held another fundraiser concert on their own for Arwen.
"I was blown away. They're a great bunch of guys to do that, and have your back like that," Windley said.
He is now continuing that theme. He pledged to be a regular at the Farmer's Market stage, and anything thrown into his hat would go to research, treatment and family care for those working through pediatric cancer.
His acoustic/electric lite show at Shiraz tonight happens at 7 p.m. with all proceeds (including a donation already made by Shiraz) going to Windley's causes.
