Carolyn Anne McManus

Carolyn Anne McManus – Leaving with Love, Going to Love

A Life Well-Lived

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Carolyn Anne McManus who died peacefully in her lovely home on a sunny afternoon in Seattle on February 12, 2025 of metastatic breast cancer. She was 70 years old. Carolyn was a beloved wife, stepmother, step-grandmother, sister, sister-in-law, aunt and great-aunt leaving behind a legacy of love, kindness, compassion and equanimity along with remarkable achievements.

Early Life

Carolyn was born on September 24, 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was Richard Owen McManus and her mother was Eleanor Susan Keenan. During her early years in Needham, Massachusetts, Carolyn showed a passion for science, skiing, hiking and Red Sox games. She graduated from Needham Senior High School in 1972 and was a captain of the varsity gymnastics team. With a strong ability in science inspired by her high school science teacher and lifelong mentor, Raye Miller, she decided to pursue and complete a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology at the University of Massachusetts in 1977.

Carolyn loved hiking and skiing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and started working for the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), Pinkham Notch Camp, during college summer breaks. She was the first woman caretaker at the AMC Tuckerman’s Ravine Camp on Mt. Washington in1973. Carolyn skied there many spring ski seasons during high school and college.

The winter prior to her becoming caretaker at Tuckerman’s, the caretaker cabin burned down leaving Carolyn to manage the area from a canvas tent. Her duties included providing information to hikers, managing camping permits, and assisting in rescues.

The next year, 1974, she became the first woman hut master for the AMC Lonesome Lake Hut in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire. Carolyn was responsible for managing the “Croo” of college kids that served 30-40 hikers a day staying in the camp bunkhouse with meals and accommodations.

After suffering a ski accident and receiving adept, considerate rehab care from a physical therapist, she decided to attend Duke University where she completed a Master of Science degree in Physical Therapy in 1980.

Career and Accomplishments

Carolyn ventured west and began her physical therapy career at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington in the early 1980s. She moved to private practice in 1983 for several years and eventually Swedish Hospital in 1998 where she spent the bulk of her 40 year career. Carolyn developed mindfulness-based methods to successfully treat patients with chronic pain and Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. In many cases, she helped patients become pain-free and veterans to reconnect with their families after suffering the horrors of war.

Carolyn became a highly skilled physical therapy clinician, researcher and professional trainer. With well-reasoned and forceful arguments to the powers-that-be about the healing power and effectiveness of her methods, Carolyn’s voice was heard, and it made a difference. She was a national leader in the integration of mindfulness into physical therapy and healthcare. Carolyn was President, and past-President, of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Pain Special Interest Group. During her terms as President, she increased membership in the organization from 400 to 800 members.

In 1991 Carolyn completed a Master of Arts degree in Psychology from Antioch University in Seattle to better assist her patient care.

In 1998, she joined the Outpatient Rehabilitation Department at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, where she established their popular Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program for people with persistent pain and stress-related illness. She completed an advanced MBSR Teacher Training Program at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. In 2009, Carolyn and David Kearney, MD developed and conducted a pilot study examining a 12-week course in Kindness Meditation for veterans at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System in Seattle. From 2009 through 2019, she continued to serve on Dr. Kearney’s research team, providing MBSR and Kindness Meditation courses in research exploring the effects of these trainings in veterans with a wide range of health concerns. With the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, she reluctantly retired from providing individual patient care and mindfulness classes.

Carolyn was much respected by her colleagues and served as a mentor and inspiration to many. She published numerous research papers and developed and taught many professional development courses. She frequently presented at national conferences in several healthcare fields. Carolyn teamed with the Medbridge Healthcare Education organization to provide in-person and online trainings to healthcare providers. She had an especially warm heart for new physical therapy practitioners and developed a webinar specifically for them: “Managing Impostor Syndrome: Have Confidence in Your Competency.”

Here is one patient’s story, among many others, of working with Carolyn:

“Sometime in 2010 I woke with severe neck pain and unable to turn my head. After some testing, I found I had bulging discs in my neck, arthritis, severe cervical curve and spinal stenosis. Over the years I have been to five different chiropractors, three acupuncturists, four massage therapists, five physical therapists, and three different primary care physicians. I’ve been to two neurologists, two different spine surgery specialists and a pain specialist. After years of frustration and chronic pain, inability to cook, hold my child or generally exist after I got home from work, my husband started researching other possible options and found Carolyn’s mindfulness relaxation for pain relief. I asked my current physician for a referral to see her.

In my first session, she taught me something that I had been missing. She taught me how to relax, how to be kind to myself, and how to be aware that there is more to my consciousness than my pain. I was living in my neck and head every day as if those were the only things that existed in my body, and it was misery. When I broadened my awareness, the pain in my neck and head moved slightly into the background. I was able to relax my shoulders. Not even the best of the massage therapists accomplished that. For the first time in six years, I felt like I had a future that wasn’t laced in pain and blackness. I felt hope that I could exist with this problem without it taking over my life as it had been. Since that one appointment and with the tools Carolyn gave me, I have been able to:

14.      - Relax my shoulders and reduce the pain by two levels (6 to a 4 for example, to 2, to no pain at all)
15.      - Reduced my intake of narcotic pain medication dramatically
16.      - Feel happy and positive about my future
17.      - Be kind to myself (AMAZING)
18.      - Let go of my anxiety
19.      - Reduce my levels of stress at work and home
20. 
    

I was a cynic. I fought my husband tooth and nail because I thought if this worked, it meant it was all in my head. The truth is, it’s not all in my head, but my mind can be used as a powerful tool to soothe my body. I wish someone had shown me this years ago.”

Rich, her supervisor at Swedish, commented: “I have known Carolyn for over 40 years, going back to when she joined Virginia Mason as a staff therapist doing the kind of mainstream PT that most of the rest of us were trying to get better at providing. To see what she has done professionally since then is just mind boggling. It is an honor for me to have witnessed all that she has added to our profession.”

Below is a commendation of Carolyn's expertise by Jon Kabat Zinn, PhD, Founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Professor of Medicine emeritus, University of Massachusetts Medical School:

“Carolyn brings a unique wealth of knowledge and experience in mindfulness and patient care to her professional courses. Her ability to discuss the latest research and guide the fundamental practices of mindfulness provides her audience with the scientific basis and a rich experiential introduction to the applications of mindfulness to both patient care and provider self-care. Carolyn invites participants to directly experience how mindfulness is central to their well-being and the therapeutic alliance as well as to a patient’s self-efficacy and healing. In doing so, her training programs offer a critical ingredient to optimize clinical care.”

Family and Personal Life

Family was at the heart of Carolyn’s life. She cherished moments with her husband Vic Snyder; stepdaughter Ann Snyder and her husband Whare Heke; step-granddaughter Temakoniwha Heke; siblings Richard McManus and his wife Karen, and Doug McManus and his wife Susan; nieces Kelly Schaffer, Heather Sperling, Emilia McManus, Rachel Smith and Hayley Steele; nephews Richard (Dick) McManus and Michael McManus and his wife Jillian; great-niece Rosie Schaffer; and great-nephew Leo McManus.

She was devoted to her nephews and nieces. She introduced Dick to classical music and Michael to live theater. Kelly gained an understanding of mind/body awareness from Carolyn which she continues to use with her special needs students today.

Carolyn met Vic in 2010, and they married on July 6, 2019, at Dancing Fish Vineyards on Whidbey Island, Washington. Best friends Laura, Kristie and Alan were officiant, maid of honor and best man respectively. Emilia, Carolyn’s niece, played Saint-Sains’ “The Swan” on her cello. Niwha, Vic’s granddaughter, served as Carolyn’s flower girl. Another best friend, Judy, recited “The Truelove,” a poem by David Whyte about finding love later in life. Vic gave an ode to the women we love and the men in attendance toasted them all. Carolyn and Vic said It was the happiest day of their lives together with the people they loved. They honeymooned on a Paris to Prague river cruise in Europe after the pandemic in the fall of 2022. Together, Carolyn and Vic built a deep, abiding love; giving thanks daily for having found each other. Carolyn was a loving, kind and generous family member.

Hobbies and Interests

Carolyn was an avid reader of medical journals, biographies of historic American women, and New York Times best sellers. Her favorite things included spending time with her nieces and nephews, lunch, Zoom meetings and making soups with her girlfriends, knitting sweaters and onesies for new babies in the family, silent retreats at Spirit Rock, the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Art Museum, TV mysteries, her panoramic view of Seattle, and the hummingbirds who visited her feeder. Carolyn loved Paris and enjoyed her time there with Vic. She especially enjoyed hiking along the Hoh River rain forest, which she said was her favorite place on earth. She was an active member of meditation groups. Her friends and family will forever remember her delightful giggle and kind spirit.

Carolyn’s Heartfelt Legacy

Carolyn held dear to her life the Buddhist principle of the Four Immeasurables: love, kindness, compassion and equanimity. She practiced them every day and every moment. In fact, one of her favorite sayings was: “present moment/only moment.” She felt we were all of one “fabric” and she lived as if that were so in the interactions with everyone she met.

Carolyn’s effect on others was broad and diverse. She was the “cool aunt” to all her nieces and nephews. She was “The High Priestess” to her gender fluid niece/nephew, guarding the mysteries of the universe and “making sure we didn’t get too many mysteries before we were ready.” To Maggie, a dear spiritual friend, she was a model of how to meet life and death with an open heart. A Duke University classmate said that she used Carolyn’s teachings on mindfulness and chronic pain to manage her own pain non-surgically, and incorporated those teachings into her lectures for her students in the U.S., Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

As Carolyn’s husband, she convinced me that I had a good heart. She helped me see the world in a more comforting way, rather than focusing on dire circumstances. Our trips to the Hoh River were special to the both of us for the peace and quiet and mystical mist. She liked to rest on a log by the river and meditate while I continued to hike a bit more. It’s where she would like her ashes to be spread.

Carolyn was appreciative and grateful for each day and most everything in her life. She used to thank me for every little thing I did, which was more than necessary. So, I told her she had a limited quota of “thank you’s” for the day. Late one night recently, she had been thanking me repeatedly and I said that her quota was up. Then, a little while later, she thanked me again and I said, “that’s okay, it’s a new day with a fresh quota.” She beamed and we both laughed. As ever, so appreciative, so grateful!

While Carolyn’s spirit was peaceful, calm and beautiful on the last day of her life, her body experienced some pain prior to that due to the effects of her cancer treatments. Hearing our concern for her suffering, she said the pain was no longer an issue for her. And with that, she gave us one final lesson in equanimity: how to have mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in difficult times. What a wonderful gift!

Fortunately, on the day before she passed, Carolyn was lucid and happy to participate in a Celebration of Life for her in her home with a full view of Seattle and the Olympic mountains that she loved. Family and friends visited and voiced how much Carolyn had impacted their lives in a meaningful way. We were so happy to see how delighted she was to have us all there. Her spiritual leader Ayya Anandabodhi visited with her, and it was heartwarming to see Carolyn’s joy. Her colleague and mindfulness friend, Diane, noticed “Carolyn's face and smile were radiant as she told us she was 'HAPPY', 'Fabulous’ and not afraid to die, very much feeling the love and light in her heart as a guide for her.” While tired at the end of the celebration, she rested hand in hand with Vic. Hummingbirds visited the next morning and didn’t seem to want to leave, perhaps playing with Carolyn’s spirit. She passed peacefully in the afternoon with the sun shining on her face.

While we are heartbroken in losing Carolyn to the next mystery, we have joy that she was leaving with our love, to go to a place where she was going to be loved. One of her last comments was that she was “excited for the mystery, resting with love in my heart.”

Carolyn’s Favorite Organizations

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to the following organizations:

Saranaloka Foundation, www.alokavihara.org, a non-profit organization with the identification number 42-1701612, under the direction of Ayya Anandabodhi to support Aloka Vihara. Ayya Anandabodhi was instrumental in helping Carolyn and her family manage the transition process for the end of life.

Northwest Immigration Rights Project, www.nwirp.org, Seattle office, development@nwirp.org.

Also, inspired by Carolyn’s enjoyment of the hummingbirds outside her window, her dear artist friend, Jan Ward, created a special ceramic mug design called “Carolyn’s Hummingbirds” which she hopes to offer in the near future to help support breast cancer research. You can view them on Instagram at @jan.paint

Messages of Condolence

The family invites those who knew and loved Carolyn to share their memories and messages of condolence on the Co-op Funeral Home website: www.funerals.coop/obituaries/.

Final Thoughts

As we bid farewell to Carolyn, let us hold onto the beautiful memories and the lessons she imparted. She will be dearly missed but never forgotten, living on in the hearts of all who were fortunate enough to know her. Rest in peace, dear Carolyn. Your light shines on in our hearts forever.