I have crossed paths with Steve Bell throughout my life, long before I came to work in his office in 2007. Nowadays, my husband fixes his lawnmower and he even sang at our wedding and at my mother’s funeral. He made appearances to sing at my first art showings. Below is one of my paintings that hangs in his home.

One time in my employment with him, I took photos of his home for a proposal to a magazine that showed famous people’s homes, but the photos were turned down with the elitist reply, “We don’t do bungalows…”

The first time I met Steve Bell was in my youth when I sang in a church band, and our group twice opened Steve Bell concerts at local Manitoba coffeehouses. At the time I thought he was a bit “snobbish”, as he didn’t say hello to the individual members of our band, except for our pianist, Jane Reimer.

I again saw him when he showed up at the door of my home after I had started a freelance artwork business, and asked if I could try a sample layout for concert posters. At the time, design was not done on computers yet, and I needed to send out for visual prints and typesetting, and assemble it manually. I was embarrassed that my poster layout was awful at the time, and I didn’t hear from Steve again, and he never gave me the free tape cassette he had promised in payment. 

In later years, I worked as administrative assistant at Portage Ave. MB Church and his team did his Sons & Daughters Tour concert there. At that time, my husband had just passed away, and Steve showed compassion, giving me several CDs, including Solace for Seasons of Suffering. It was a lovely, generous gesture.

During my widowhood, a healing trip to Guatemala became available, and I went on this tour led by Wally and Shirley Schmidt, and who else went along? Steve and Nanci Bell. Steve was a guest who gave us wonderful mini concerts throughout our journey. It was great to get to know them better.

The next time Steve and his manager Dave used my church was for rehearsals for the Symphony Sessions concert. At that time, I was thinking of changing jobs, and God urged me to comment to Dave Zeglinski while passing him in the hallway, that if they ever needed an administrative assistant, to please consider me.

Signpost Music did indeed call me about a job a while later, but I had just accepted a new job at Newcap Radio. However, on my first day of training, I was told that the radio station was switching over to become a country station, and that my new job had been eliminated. In shock, I went home and considered my options. I called Signpost Music back and found out that they were still hiring, so I immediately applied. It was only part time, so I re-started my freelance business, applied at Kelly Services, and still worked part-time as a banquet server at Rossmere Country Club. At one time, I had five part-time jobs, including training the new person at my old church job. It was a miracle that I had enough work to make ends meet!

The multiple jobs lasted a year, until I was gradually hired full-time for Steve Bell’s independent record label. It has been a learning experience over the years. I have also been inspired by Steve’s photos to start painting again. I have helped his business to stay flourishing in many areas, including fundraising and sales. I have never regretted a moment of working with him and his partner Dave, and learning through his storytelling and avid reading. Steve has developed over the years to become a kind, generous and humble man who loves God and all people.

I have found over and over again that God leads us throughout our lives if we allow Him.

More about Steve Bell at Stevebell.com