There are familiar sounds in any shopping mall - cash registers, people chatting, and the hustle and bustle of footsteps through the halls - But in Ottawa’s Rideau Center, one employee’s day is filled with sweet and joyful songs, which she shares with everyone around her.
Kidist Endres sings as she goes about her work. A member of the cleaning staff, as she walks through the mall, her soothing hymns bring happiness to customers and staff alike.
“I grew up in the church I used to be in the choir so I just sing by spiritual,” says Endres. “When I sing, I feel peace, I feel happiness, so that’s why I continue to sing.”
The songs come from Endres’ Ethiopian roots. After immigrating to Canada in 2018, she began working at the mall and continues to, six days a week.
Fellow workers heard her serene voice in the back hallways and encouraged her to sing for customers.
“Everybody, my workers, they just make me feel like my family, my home,” she says. “They say, ‘Go ahead, don’t stop. When you sing, I feel something. I feel a peace, I feel a freedom.”
Many shoppers walking by stop in their tracks to listen and offer compliments.
“It’s unbelievable, her voice. She should be put in a recording studio immediately,” says Natalie Champhane, while walking around Rideau Centre. “She has a very soulful voice. It almost brings me to tears and it transcends and enlightens and she’s beautiful.”
It’s an experience which cannot be bought and in a time where the world can feel like a dark place, Endres sings, to help to help herself, and others around her, find the light.
“Because I’m happy,” she says. “And to show them that everything is going to be fine.”
