I Want Everyone to Remember How Much Olivia Cared About Animals
She surrounded herself with cats, dogs, and horses and traveled the world to support wild animals and their habitats.
By Nancy Gould Chuda
Photo: Olivia gets flowers and kiss from Journey. By Nancy Gould Chuda
Olivia Newton-John and I were friends for nearly 50 years, and like everyone else who was lucky enough to know and love her, I was heartened by the outpouring of tributes that came after her death earlier this year. Countless people spoke and wrote about her remarkable talent, kindness, and dedication to others. All of it was true and then some, but I want to remind the world about another quality that made her so special. In all my life I have never known anyone who loved and nurtured animals more than Olivia.
We were introduced in the early 1970s by my stepfather, Gerald Breslauer, who was Olivia’s business manager. He had a hunch that we’d hit it off. We both adored our respective Irish setters, Beau (mine) and Jackson. We also loved our horses, Gilligan (mine) and Judge, her beautiful Palomino. Over the decades I would watch as Olivia’s passion for animals blossomed into a lifelong commitment to helping them and fighting to save their habitat.
We both had babies around the same time in 1986. Olivia's daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi, came first and then six weeks later came mine, Colette Lenore Chuda. Our children hit it off and we spent many wonderful days together when they were young. But sadly, in 1990, Colette was diagnosed with a rare non-hereditary cancer, Wilm’s Tumor, and she passed a year later. Olivia was incredibly supportive of my husband, Jim, and me at the time.
We were still grieving deeply when she invited us to visit a songwriter friend of hers, Joe Henry, in Salida, Colorado, overlooking the Sangre De Christo mountains. Joe had written a song, When I Reach The Place I'm Going, in Colette's memory. We went for a hike and saw a magnificent rainbow. The chromatic colors took our breath away, and we were all convinced it was a sign from Colette.
As we descended the trail, the only humans amongst the quivering Aspens, we heard a distressing sound. It was an animal, a baby calf struggling to survive having slipped into a raging river. Seeing her calf thrust underwater, the mother cow moaned while moving along the banks. From our vantage point we could see the calf being swept along at increasing speed. Chloe cried out, Mommy we have to save her.
Olivia rushed ahead to a road on the bank of the river just in time to catch the attention of a driver behind the wheel of a Ford Bronco. He quickly sized-up the situation, hit the gas, and drove down to the river’s edge ahead of the calf and its mother. Then he attached a rope to his trailer hitch, lassoed the young calf, and pulled it to safety. We watched with fear and excitement during the rescue and Olivia broke into tears when she saw the calf and its mother reunite. The driver, who had recognized Olivia immediately, was left speechless. Not because he was starstruck, but because he could see the immense kindness of the real-life person who everyone knew as Sandy Olson from Grease.
Olivia was never afraid to get up close to animals, even if it meant braving uncertain reactions. We went swimming with dolphins together one time in Hawaii. I was a bit scared by their size and mischievous acrobatic ways underwater, but Olivia, clad in an aqua blue scuba suit, was undaunted and fit right into the pod. I watched as she grabbed the dorsal fin of one, the leader, and streamlined her body against his to enhance their mutual hydrodynamics. I always thought she could have been a dolphin in another life. Especially when she wrote The Promise (the Dolphin Song), her ode to saving the dolphins. But it really could have been any type of animal. In her book, Don’t Stop Believin', she reminisced about the time she got to unleash an adult bald eagle into the wild. The bird used her scalp as a platform to leap in the air, leaving a scar that she cherished for life. I’ve been touched by an eagle,
she wrote.
Starting in 1994, she hosted an Australian television series called Human Nature and traveled around the world and reported on animals and their habitats. In one episode she galloped across a field in southern France and declared, The White Horses of the Camargue have a spirit born of freedom.
She could well have been speaking about herself.
In 1996, we went to Donegal in the western region of Ireland for a riding holiday, which was filmed for the BBC. When she was given her mount, a beautiful mare named Jenny, the wind whipped sand from the seashore causing the horse to bolt and Olivia to land on a hard patch of ground. She was taken to an emergency room but luckily it was only a minor injury and a day’s bedrest spent munching on soda bread and drinking strong black tea got her up and in the saddle again. She was so excited to be there and hoped the BBC special would lure Brits and Ozzies to experience a once in a lifetime equestrian experience in Ireland.
Olivia was drawn to animals that needed help and many of them ended up permanently in her care, including stray cats, dogs (mostly rescued), and horses (some she received as gifts and others she volunteered to help heal from injuries). A common refrain among her friends was, When I die, I want to come back as one of your animals and live at Livvy Land.
She traveled to Namibia in 1977 to film a documentary about cheetahs with conservationist Dr. Laurie Marker, and later helped promote the work of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which Marker founded in 1990. She was our International Cheetah Day Ambassador, helping bring attention to the plight of the cheetah every December 4th,
Marker told me at Olivia’s memorial service. She lent her talents to help conserve the species. She had such a wonderful, giving spirit.
Olivia was also crazy about bears, as I witnessed first hand on a trip to Alaska in 1989. We went hiking on a trail marked with signs that read, Danger. Speak loudly if you are in the presence of a bear.
When, sure enough, we spotted one, Olivia opted to sing instead, belting out at the top of her lungs, Let’s Get Physical.
Lucky bear.
She abhorred the fact that bears were sought after as trophies and for their bile. She dedicated time to working with Animals Asia, which rescues endangered bears and helps create animal sanctuaries in China and Vietnam where they are safe from the bile-harvesting industry. Supporting initiatives to save wildlife gave Olivia a deeper desire to protect their habitats.
In the final weeks of Olivia’s life a very special dog, a 15-month-old silver-grey standard poodle named Jack, joined her pack. Photo: Janie Lynn Heinrich
In 2017, with her beloved husband John Easterling by her side, Olivia revealed the news that her breast cancer had returned and metastasized to her sacrum. She and John redoubled their philanthropic and advocacy efforts as she fought the disease, inspiring countless others who were fighting their own battles.
At home, she surrounded herself with friends, family, and animals — lots of animals. I love the quiet time in the morning when nobody’s up yet and the animals are all happy to see me,
she told me once. She'd go outside to see her two mini horses, Harry and Winston. Magic, the rescued cat that once fit in the palm of her hand, lay constantly at her feet when she was resting. Raven the K9 Sheppard, a gift from her husband, slept at the foot of her bed every night.
In the final weeks of her life, there was one very special dog, Jack, a 15-month-old silver-grey standard poodle who joined her pack. He was trained by a wonderful organization called MobilityDog, which pairs animals with people with disabilities to provide support and security. They bonded immediately as Jack sat bedside her in the hospital and at home giving her hand a kiss when she needed it.
Olivia passed away peacefully at home at her ranch in the loving arms of her husband John and her daughter Chloe and surrounded, of course, by animals.
A few months before Olivia passed away, I surprised her with another special visitor, Derrie, a playful Irish setter, who reminded us of how we first met. I was blessed to have known Olivia, and I will always cherish my memories of our time together. Photo: Nancy Chuda.
NANCY GOULD CHUDA Nancy Gould Chuda is an author, journalist, and co-founder emeritus of Healthy Child Healthy World and the Colette Chuda Environmental Fund, both dedicated to the memory of her daughter Colette Chuda who died of a non-hereditary cancer at age 5 in 1991.
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