REGGAE singer Sanchez is mourning the loss of his mother, Bridget Anestine Ivey, who succumbed to cervical cancer on Tuesday.

When the Jamaica Observer’s Splash spoke to his wife Monica Jackson on Thursday, she said the singer has been inconsolable.

“He’s not taking it well at all. All the condolence messages that people are sending, all the voice notes, I’m reading them to him and he just keeps crying so I just stopped reading them altogether. Right now, as we speak, he’s sleeping. He cried himself to sleep. He isn’t trying to avoid the messages but he isn’t coping well,” she said.

Ivey, who was 74, died at home in Canada surrounded by her four other children, except Sanchez who resides in Jamaica, and her grandchildren. Originally from Stony Hill in St Andrew, she emigrated to Canada in 1986.

Jackson said the elderly woman was ailing for some time.

“She did chemotherapy and everything was fine, but in February it came back aggressively and they gave her a specific time span to live but she went before that,” she explained.

Sanchez — whose given name is Kevin Anthony Jackson — is known for songs such as Forever, Never Dis Di Man, Lonely Won’t Leave Me Alone, and Chronic. He has also covered several gospel songs including Amazing Grace, Who Is This Man, Praise Him, and My God Is Real.

Sanchez’s wife said his mother’s Christian influence motivated him to produce gospel tracks.

“She’s an evangelist and all children were brought up in church at Rehoboth Apostolic Church in Independence City (Portmore). He was in the junior choir at church and then the senior choir,” Jackson said, adding that Sanchez’s cover of Amazing Grace was his mother’s favourite.

Ivey is survived by three sons and two daughters of which Sanchez is the firstborn.