Passed away at the Sunnybrook Hospice after a long battle with Parkinson`s disease and recently with cancer. Born in Sondre Land, Norway, the daughter of Mons and Magnhild Synnevåg, Olaug trained as a librarian. In 1960 she came to work at Memorial University Library in St. John`s, Newfoundland, where she met David, whom she married in Oslo in 1963. They settled in Toronto, where Olaug worked briefly in the University before becoming a homemaker. She will be greatly missed by her husband of 57 years, by her daughters Ingrid (and Rob Lencki), and Catherine (and Pierre Mikhail), and by her grandchildren Hannah and Megan Mikhail and Maxwell and Andrew Koyama.
Kind, warm and generous, she was supportive of her husband’s career, and devoted to her children and grandchildren, as they were to her. She always kept in close contact with her family in Norway and with Norwegian culture; she never lost her fluency in her native language. She enjoyed opera, classical music, theatre and English novels of the nineteenth century. She watched every kind of sport on television, from the Olympics to baseball. As a dear friend said of her, she was born with a pair of knitting needles in her hands and skis on her feet.
She was a dedicated volunteer. She worked with young people at the Bloorview Macmillan Centre and later with the Canadian Music Competition. She also spent several years helping at the Toronto office of Dying with Dignity. She provided many years of service to older friends and neighbours, visiting them in their homes and care settings.
Cremation and a private commemoration have taken place.
The family requests that donations in Olaug`s memory be made to the Palliative Care Unit, Sunnybrook Hospital, 2075, Bayview Avenue, Toronto, ON M4N 3M5. The care given by the staff there is much appreciated.