Ep. 77 Gold Star Mom & Finding Joy After Immense Loss-Kim’s American Story

Kim was born in Idaho and lived there 6 weeks and then traveled with her mother and older brother to Missouri to join her father who was attending dental school.

At the age of 4, the family moved to Orem, Utah where Kim attended elementary, Jr. High and High School.

Kim was a very shy and rather socially awkward young lady and
perhaps that’s why the Lord decided to give her a few challenges along the way to toughen her up.

Kim married her high school sweetheart and they moved to SLC where he was enrolled in Pre Med. By the time they were expecting their second child; Kim’s husband hadfound interest in another woman and left the family.

Kim was incredibly fortunate to be accepted into LPN school just 6 weeks after her little girl was born. One year later, she graduated from LPN school as the valedictorian of her class.

Over the next 30 years, she worked for a physician, in the hospital setting and finally in running the largest hospice company in Utah.

She was nominated as the Utah Hospice and Palliative Care President twice and served as President when Utah hosted
the National Convention.

She also received an award from the UHPCO which states, “In
recognition of your service & dedication to the families, colleagues & community you serve”

A second marriage brought forth three more beautiful babies while the family lived in Riverdale, Utah. A tragic automobile accident took the lives of her sweet 4 year old baby boy Nathan and her 36 year old Husband.

Kim’s youngest child of 21 months was also in the accident and was not breathing and was without a heartbeat when the first
responders arrived. She will always be grateful for Officer Peterson who gave him CPR so that he could live to be a happy, healthy man with a family of his own.

Several years later, Kim married for yes a third time. We combined our families under one roof and stared our life with 8 children between the ages of 3 and 15 th . It was like
herding cats. We loved it.
Two years later we added, “The ours baby”, Nigel to our family. He was so incredibly loved by all his brothers and sisters.

Nigel was always fascinated with the military and read every military history book he could find.  He was a member of the Civil Air Patrol
and one week after high school graduation he joined the USMC.

Nigel's company was deployed to Afghanistan in October of 2009. His billet was intelligence and recon. He entered buildings to find weapons and the Taliban.

Nigel was killed by an IED on March 4, 2010 while escorting a captured Taliban prisoner back to his vehicle.

After Nigel’s death, Kim volunteered for the Red Cross for several years and received “The Lifetime Hero Award” for her service to the military.

Kim has served as President of the Provo/Orem Chamber of Commerce Women’s Division as well as several positions in the health care arena.

Kim also started her non-profit company called Gold Star Stars.
She sent thousands of Gold Star car window stickers across the nation to grieving military parents. The Gold Stars listed their loved ones Branch, Rank, Name and Date of Death, with the words, “Never Forgotten” on them.

She has been married to Todd Olsen for 35 years and they currently reside in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

Over the last 12 years Kim has been speaking to schools, church and civic groups about faith, freedom and her great love for all those who serve in our military.

She currently runs the Gold Star Families of Utah closed face book page where all our Utah fallen heroes are remembered.

Post 4918 is a local VFW post located in American Fork where she currently serves as the Auxiliary President.

She is on a committee that is bringing a Gold Star Families Monument to Sandy City. The groundbreaking was on July 29 th of this year and the dedication will be held on September 24 th at Sandy City Hall.

Last but not least, she and her husband are serving as Senior Service Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Her husband Todd has been diagnosed with terminal cancer so they are going to enjoy every minute they have together.

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