Help Arrives For Woman In East Mountains

Candace Olson called me from her new home, which is also her new workplace. Which is also her new life.

“It’s warm here,” she gushed.

Which is a significant improvement.

When I wrote about Olson in my Dec. 12 column, she had just endured a marrow-chilling cold snap and the snows of a brutal East Mountains winter.

It was the beginning of her third winter up there in a cramped recreational vehicle with no heat, no running water and no electricity on an undeveloped piece of property off N.M. 217, owned by her brother.

It was also not the only brutal thing in her life. Olson, 60, had lived a good life and worked good managerial jobs until the economy collapsed in 2008, leaving her jobless, homeless and hopeless when her savings and retirement funds ran out a year later.

The RV and her five dogs were all she had left.

When Bernalillo County zoning officers started coming around in 2010 after a neighbor complained that she was living in an RV in violation of zoning codes, Olson began to fear she would lose them, too.

Then the column was published, and the calls offering help and support flooded in.

Before all that, there was Tammy Hill, the leader of the women’s ministry at the Valley View Christian Church in Edgewood, who had heard about Olson’s plight just before Thanksgiving and taken her a turkey basket from the church.

It was the beginning of an amazing friendship.

Hill became the woman to whom I passed along the calls and emails from you readers. She coordinated everything, never accepting more than what was needed and mindful that every decision made was in Olson’s best interests.

Because along with the many people who wanted to help were a few who wanted to take advantage of Olson’s sudden good fortune.

Hill, as fierce an advocate as I can imagine, kept those people away.

“I feel so blessed to have this opportunity,” said Hill, who sometimes speaks with the rousing rhythm of a Sunday morning preacher. “I have gotten so much out of this that you wouldn’t believe. I just feel grateful, so grateful that the Lord has used me that way and that feels so good.”

Hill was there Dec. 15 when Olson went before a Metro Court judge to plead her case about the zoning violation.

That day, the county agreed not to pursue the case so long as Olson kept to her plans to move from the property.

Those plans included having Olson’s dogs adopted and a donated truck repaired so she could load it up and head out of state to live with relatives.

But things didn’t quite turn out as planned.

“Turns out the dogs were not adoptable because living up there all those years had made them wild and hard to adapt to anyone but Candace,” Hill said. “The truck took longer than expected to be repaired, and the relatives started backing out. It just seemed like everything kept falling through. I finally realized this was a sign that this was not the way it was supposed to go. So we prayed about it and decided to see what happened.”

That’s when what Hill calls a “God thing” happened.

Hill received a call from the owner of a private animal shelter who had been asked to help with the adoption of the dogs but had been unable to do so.

“I can’t get Candace off my mind,” the owner told Hill.

The owner had an idea. Instead of taking Olson’s dogs, the owner wanted to take Olson. She offered her a job at the shelter (the location of which we are not disclosing for Olson’s protection) and a small apartment on the property. Olson would also get to bring her dogs.

“It was amazing how it all came together,” Hill said.

Olson moved into her new place and her new life Jan. 8 with the help of Hill and many others, including Spiritwind Kennels in Tijeras and Kindred Spirit Animal Sanctuary in Santa Fe, both of which took care of Olson’s dogs for free during the transition; Dearholt Auto Care in Albuquerque, which repaired Olson’s truck at no cost; Salvation Army, which sold furniture to Olson for practically no cost; and you readers, who came forward with everything from checks to a couple jars of jam.

“I can’t tell you how many times Tammy and I have talked that I bust out in tears, I can’t believe how people have helped me,” Olson told me in that phone call last week. “You tell them thanks, and you tell them the only way I can ever repay them is to pass it on, and I will do that when I can to the best of my ability. Pass it on.”

MORE GOOD NEWS: Marge Cunningham told us her harrowing tale of having a heart attack on a chilly Dec. 6 in the parking lot of Paisano’s, a restaurant she frequents in Northeast Albuquerque. Were it not for the kindness of two strangers who came to her rescue, she might not have survived.

Those strangers responded to the Jan. 6 column about Cunningham’s search for them, telling me they had also wanted to find out what had happened to the woman they had helped that day.

The strangers asked that they not be named but allowed me to put them in touch with a grateful Cunningham. The three were expected to have dinner together at Paisano’s this past Sunday.

“Thank you so much,” Cunningham said, “for your help in finding my new friends.”

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline Gutierrez Krueger at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal