Olive Carey

Olivia Carey, age 48, passed away peacefully in her home, surrounded by loved ones on May 18, 2011. Her life was cut short by ovarian cancer. Olivia was born in Dublin, Ireland to Margie and John Carey. She is survived by her Mam (Margie), her brother Paul, and sisters Tina, Madeline, Johanna, and Margaret.From the beginning Olivia shook off the safe route through life and moved to Greece when she was 19 years old to live in a small town outside of Athens for 5 years where she became fluent in Greek, looked for the perfect white sand beach, and formed lasting relationships with the family she worked with. While in Greece, Olivia met her former husband at a dance and they married shortly after. It is easy to understand how he would be smitten--watching Olivia Carey dance was to witness a fluid force of nature leaving the crushed and the enchanted in her wake.Shortly after moving to Poulsbo, her marriage ended, but it didn't take long for Olivia to make her way to Bainbridge Island where she was soon embraced by her new community. She continued her training as a fitness professional and eventually became one of the best personal trainers in the region, in large part because she elevated her weight lifting programs to a powerful combination of spirit and the body to implement change. On an upper body workout, for example, she would ask her clients to ‘push' the dark and the challenges away, and with the next set to ‘pull' in the light and abundance. The results were astonishing--muscles formed, the heart followed, each workout was a training session for life. Olivia worked with abused women in shelters in the Seattle area for many years, touching lives and helping to send them out in the world equipped with a resiliency they'd forgotten they had.Olivia believed all people, but women especially, needed to ‘be in their skin' and love their bodies no matter the shape or size. She celebrated the beauty and life in movement and music and dance. She believed sensuality was everyone's birthright. Olivia taught young girls to defy our culture's incessant barrage of stick thin models and opened their worlds to the beauty of muscle, the glory of pure physical power. She created and taught a wildly popular Exotic Aerobics class where she hung curtains on the doors, cranked up the music and taught the kind of dance moves your mother forbade, with tips for practicing at home.Over the years Olivia trained handicapped children and adults for the Special Olympics, worked with clients at no charge who could not afford her, and met with women who were experiencing transitions to offer support and protection. Olivia was one of those rare, radiant forces who touches lives and alters them with her acceptance of all people, her indiscriminate love, her strength, her dazzling Irish smile that felt like the sun when it landed on you.When Olivia was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006, she was determined to beat it, and she did. She used this shattering experience to help others with cancer. She and her boyfriend and partner Jose Lugo began Reclaim, a program individually tailored for people challenged with progressive illnesses to reclaim their health and vitality using techniques she had shaped for decades, but had recently re-tailored with her own life experiences.In July of 2010, the cancer Olivia had forced out of her body five years earlier returned with deadly force. For 10 months she fought long and hard, refusing to surrender. Five days before her death she was still working with her clients, cracking the whip on more weight and reps, as uncompromising and unwavering as ever to cultivate change. Through it all she never complained and made the most of each and every moment.Olivia Carey navigated the world with her uncommon heart. She coached us all in her wake to follow. Her path was always about the heart. It is her legacy and imperative.There will be a celebration of Olivia's life at IslandWood (4450 Blakely Ave. NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110) on June 5, 2011 at 6:00 PM. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to Arms Around Bainbridge: http://www.armsaroundbainbridge.com/ Olivia was the seedbed and inspiration of this foundation. Please sign the online Guest Book.