Artwork by Jessica Bell, Aiden (11) & Isaac (8)
Welcome to Episode 8 in my 2024 Monday Music Matters “Song-A-Week”series of stories in memory and in honour of my daughter, Kait
Kait wrote this song for my step-daughter’s son, Loïc, whose middle name is Ryder. She thought this was such a strong name &, inspired by their Irish roots on their father/grandfather’s side, she envisaged a Celtic warrior riding on the hills of Ireland or along the seashore.
Loïc Ryder is a bright young man with a vivid imagination, abounding energy and a beautiful heart. And just like his aunt Kait, when he finds something he loves, he dives fully in – learning all about it, surrounding himself with that thing he is so passionate about. For Kait, it was Pokemon when she was 5 or 6 years old. She even dressed as Pikachu for Halloween one year!
That was the same year I wrote her a Pikachu song naming over 50 of them in the lyrics – I was quite the hit with her kindergarten class…!
And as you can see, her passion for Pikachu continued on into her teens….
For Loïc, his passion is the octopus. Lucky for him, he lives near a beautiful aquarium which has them and he has been able to witness their cleverness, skills and beauty. Bonus: somehow his Mom managed to find an octopus cover for his bed. Mom coup! Plus of course innumerable octopus toys of all sizes as well as cuddly squishy ones.
I think Kait captured Loïc’s beautiful spirit with this song and I know one thing for sure – she wrote it with all the love in her heart for her precious nephew.
Song link: Ryder
You can read the first 7 stories by clicking on each of the links below:
Malaika
Mother Goose Groove
Hello Sunshine
Lalaby Waltz
Little one
Kait’s Waltz
Dreamwalk
The first story, “Malaika”, gives you a bit of a background of why I embarked on this 52 week journey.
Here is a link to Kait’s Comfort Kits which were created to bring some comforts of home to long term hospital patients with a focus on cancer patients.