Ivy Olson spread kindness with her Angel Network
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
Honolulu's own "Touched by an Angel" story has an ending.
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Ivy Olson, 60, died Sunday after a long battle with intestinal cancer.
A stranger's kindness was an inspiration for Ivy Olson.
Her story had been told on the TV show "Touched by an Angel" in its early run, recounting the true-life Thanksgiving story in which a stranger in San Diego took Olson, then a single mother of two, into her home to feed them.
The gesture spurred her to start Angel Network Charities in 1989, which at its height became a $700,000-a-year nonprofit serving more than 100 families on O'ahu and Moloka'i, dedicated to offering the hungry and the homeless a leg up.
President George H.W. Bush proclaimed Aug. 16, 1992, as "Angel Network Day," and Olson was chosen as one of Bush's "Thousand Points of Light."
Memorial services will be 4 p.m. April 21 at Calvary by the Sea Lutheran Church. Aloha attire is suggested.
After the services, her ashes will be taken out to sea in a procession of three canoes.
Olson's commemorative marker will be placed in front of the church next month.
Olson, who was born Nov. 6, 1941, was a mother of two, stepmother to five and calabash mother to another 15 children, said her husband, Doug Olson, 70, pastor of Calvary by the Sea.
"She touched them all in creative ways," he said. "Each was touched in a different way. Nothing was mass-produced. It was hand-crafted."
He added that the couple had said their goodbyes during her conscious moments Thursday, but even in her final days, she kept her sense of humor.
"I whispered one of our songs, 'Have I Told You Lately That I Love You,' and she said, 'Thank God,' with just a hint of a wry smile," Olson said yesterday. "... She could make any kind of work fun. In any difficulty, she could see a silver lining in it."
When they'd travel and he'd grumble, she'd remind him: "This is an adventure!"
"Everything was an adventure to her," he said.
Ivy Olson is survived by her husband, Douglas, of Hawai'i Kai; sisters, Jennifer Higgins of Oregon and Maureen Thomas of Kula, Maui; sons, Andrew Armstrong of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Kevin Armstrong of Hawai'i Kai; stepchildren Rick Olson of Hale'iwa, Olaf Olson of Alameda, Calif., Dawn Yoffe of Sacramento, Calif., Sara Petruna of Cleveland and Daniel Olson of St. Paul, Minn.; 13 grandchildren and stepgrandchildren; and a stepgreat-grandchild.
Donations may be made to Angel Network Charities, Healing Touch or Calvary by the Sea Lutheran Church.
