Born in Cambridge in England of parents from Sierra Leone in West Africa, Retty was educated both in Freetown and in London. She taught English at the Freetown Secondary School for girls before joining the staff of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service as a junior producer. She trained as a Radio Journalist at the All Africa Conference of Churches Communications Training Centre in Nairobi, Kenya and on her return to Freetown was promoted to Producer. During twenty years with the SLBS she worked on a variety of programs as diverse as Playtime for the very young, Mainly for women and Features and Documentaries, as well as being a reporter in the newsroom and doing extensive outside broadcasts on important state occasions.

She also did some TV work as presenter of the flagship children and youth programs, as well as continuity announcing. When the political tide started to turn in Freetown, Retty returned to London as a single mother of two sons. While trying to rebuild her new life in The UK, Retty spent the next few years as a stay at home mum. She continued writing plays, short stories and poetry, doing story telling in schools and libraries as well as public performances of her work on stage. Retty is descended directly from slavery. Her maternal great grandparents were born in bondage in Washington, USA and repatriated to West Africa as freed slaves. Her paternal ancestors were also once slaves in the USA.