While in high school, Alecia Aichelle had throat surgery with complications that led to doctors telling her she would never sing again.
Despite this diagnosis, Aichelle persevered by leaning on her faith, and within six months, she regained her singing ability.
Musical beginnings
Aichelle’s parents introduced her to country music at a young age, which sparked her passion for music. Aichelle grew up singing in church and eventually started playing piano and taking singing lessons.
She participated in many musicals while in school, but her favourite was in the Christmas musical hosted by her church.
At 12, Aichelle was cast as Mary, beating all the other kids who tried out.
Before being cast as Mary, Aichelle felt inferior to the other kids.
This musical helped her with her confidence. Once cast, she knew that she was up to the task.
She performed a duet with Joseph in front of about 1,500 people.
Larry Aichelle, Aichelle’s father, remembers that being cast as Mary was a turning point for Aichelle.
“She knew she could do it, and she had people that told her she did really well. So that was a confidence booster for her,” Aichelle’s father said.
Growing up in Kelowna, Aichelle realized country music wasn’t popular in her school.
She was seen as different for her country style and love for country music.
But no matter what anyone thought of her, she stayed true to herself.
“I honestly just stuck to my guns with it. I said, you know, this is me; this is what I love. This is my passion, and I don’t care what anybody thinks.”
Turning point
In grade 12, Aichelle was diagnosed with a tumour on her thyroid gland. Doctors were unable to determine if it was cancerous, so Aichelle and her family decided she would have surgery to remove it.
When she woke up after surgery, she had no voice, only being able to speak in a whisper.
After high school, Aichelle moved to Red Deer, Alta. to attend the music program at Red Deer College.
When she started her program, she still didn’t have a voice, so her voice coach sent her to see many doctors before she finally saw a specialist who told her the recurrent laryngeal nerve was accidentally severed during surgery.
Aichelle was told she would never sing or talk normally again.
All she could do was pray for a miracle, but when she told the specialist this, he wasn’t very empathetic.
“What the hell else can you do?” she recalled him saying.
Faith and healing
Aichelle’s parents were living in Kelowna when she found out she had lost her voice.
”We basically dropped everything that day and drove out to Alberta to be here with her,” her father said.
Her parents supported her with many prayers and were always there. They encouraged her to keep moving forward, and although it wasn’t an easy time in her life, she learned a lot and grew as a person.
While Aichelle initially felt betrayed by her faith, ultimately, her beliefs helped her through her healing journey.
“I felt God tell me that he was going to heal my voice and restore everything and to be patient and trust, and that’s what I did,” Aichelle said.
Three months later, her voice came back.
Aichelle went back to the specialist, and he was shocked.
”This can’t be explained medically,” she recalled him saying.
After another three months, she returned to the specialist and was cleared to start singing again.
Aichelle called her healing a miracle and made her faith real.
“Her integrity and her will to pursue the talent that she has [gave] her the strength and courage to go beyond a lot of the barriers and a lot of the closed doors that happen to people in music industries,” said Pat Moore, a long-time friend of Aichelle.
Aichelle continues to sing all over Alberta with her band.
She is grateful for everything this experience taught her.
”It taught me perseverance, patience, and trust, and those are really important life lessons,” she said.