Caryn Victoria Antos O'Hara

With heavy hearts, our family announces the passing of Caryn Victoria Antos O'Hara, 45, of Charleston, SC on Saturday, June 17, 2023, assisted with care from the tremendous community of friends and family that it was her life's work to build. Eager to begin living life to the supreme, as she was known to do in many ways, she was born a day early on May 19, 1978 to Mallory Lynne (Beital) Antos and the late Thomas Karel Antos at Charleston Naval Hospital.

A late 70's baby, Caryn was a true child of the 80's, proud of her dual generational status as an "Xennial" - old enough to rock mesh t-shirts, crimped hair, and jelly bracelets in Madonna's "Lucky Star" era, yet young enough to master Snapchat filters and to never stop growing the raddest of sneaker collections. She was a lover of life, of travel, of live music, of gardening, of yoga, of design, of laughter, and of adventure, and she filled her years with both simple joys and booming, radical escapades at every opportunity. If you were fortunate enough to hop in a sidecar and accompany her in any one of these pursuits, you reveled in it - knowing even while it was happening that it was a memory in the making.

Caryn was exuberant. She routinely burst into spontaneous dance parties, surprising her nieces by jumping on any nearby furniture that could provide an elevated dance floor. Despite unthinkable hardships, she led with glowing kindness to everyone she encountered - even during treatments and hospital procedures when she could barely speak, and by doing so she brought sunshine to all of our days, without fail. Sunshine was her favorite.

Caryn was raised in Arnold, MD and Summerville, SC, where she rocked every stage from Footlight Players to Greenwave pep rallies to late night karaoke. While still in the early elementary years, she regularly confused her family by requesting healthy snacks of cucumber and watermelon instead of typical sugary kid snacks. She loved watermelon so much that for her 8th birthday, her mother disappointed all of Caryn's friends by serving a birthday cake of an actual watermelon with candles in it - to Caryn's considerable delight. She graduated Summerville High School in 1996 among an amazing group of friends who remain close to this day. She broadened her community, knowledge, alcohol tolerance, and dance skills at Clemson University, earning a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education in 2000 and a masters degree in Graphic Communications in 2002.

Caryn's life path was astonishing in its variety, yet looking back each step in her path built on the last in a logical fashion as if she designed it purposely to be so. Her masters in graphics landed her in Richmond, VA working for Southern Graphics helping to oversee the printing process of Nestle's candy bar wrappers. Caryn liked to say she helped make trash beautiful. She moved home to Charleston, SC after a few years rollicking Monument Ave with sincere and fun-loving roommates who remain close friends. Back home in Charleston, she put her graphics degree to use at the National Association for Continence, helping people who, through disease or car accident or cancer, needed to learn how to live with incontinence without anxiety or shame. These years were her introduction to palliative care, and she again grew her community with a few girlfriends who are pillars in her world today. It was here that Caryn began to perfect her signature shoulder-shimmy, her telltale sign of party time.

Around this time Caryn found yoga, and it immediately quenched her need for physical activity, mental solace, spiritual fulfillment, and again, community. She completed her yoga teacher training at Blue Turtle Yoga, began working for Lululemon, and began to teach classes around town. The flame that yoga lit within her ignited and united her talents and passions, and from here on out her life was magic. She combined her entire life's work to found a nonprofit called Yoga Benefits Kids (YBK). With it, she was positively impacting health & wellness, and she came back to her elementary education roots working with children. Caryn & YBK partnered with Charleston County School District to offer yoga to kids in distressed areas as a form of physical & mental wellness and anger management. She taught in downtown nurseries and Montessori schools. The kids filled her up, and she them; and her light shone even brighter. When Mission Yoga opened downtown, Caryn was one of the first instructors invited to teach there by yogis whom were significant mentors in her life. Her classes were known for starting with an intentional, relevant passage and for leading participants in meaningful, touching practice. In yoga, she not only found her people; but she discovered the foundation that fully matched her lifelong ideals. She planted roots here and grew, and in kind she helped others find footing on their own paths.

Caryn was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer on her wedding day in January 2013. Upon her diagnosis, she and her husband, Matt, decided to get busy thinking big, living and loving loudly; making dreams into reality. Over the last 10.5 years living with the intermittent hopes and deep sorrows of cancer and treatment, Caryn leveled up from a kind, hilarious, loyal friend to a vibrant, compassionate, knowledgeable community leader who enriched all of our lives daily. Caryn read voraciously on the topics of health, disease, nutrition, yoga, Ayurveda, compassion and not only took copious notes, but immediately integrated what she learned into her lifestyle. In this way, we all grew by simply being near her and observing her masterfully designed, intentional life. Perhaps the most common observation about Caryn is her immeasurable grace - both in the sense of movement and in compassion.

Caryn's wellness journey continued with Ayurvedic Health Counselor certification at the highly regarded Kripalu in Massachusetts. This experience was one of the most treasured and fulfilling of her life. With this certification and additional training in trauma therapies and other healing modalities, Caryn counseled countless people through grief, trauma, doubt, sadness, and myriad tough transitions. She did so while she faced her own health battle head-on, and still, she met each of her clients with a radiant smile and laughter.

Ever the Madonna fan, she emulated Madge three years ago by once again seamlessly reinventing herself. Caryn built upon her education in advanced graphic design, the joy of physical movement, and the mental health she enjoyed from combining them. A design maven and constant observer, Caryn noticed a need for professional wallpaper hanging in Charleston. She flew in a nationally known master wallpaper hanger to train her and founded her own wallpaper company, fittingly named "Seamless Wallcovers." The company was wildly successful, with a waiting list far beyond what she could personally provide. Only months ago she was preparing to expand her staff to further meet demand. Bringing beauty to a client's home and sanctuary brought Caryn immense joy. With each new endeavor, she only added to her interests and expertise; she never replaced her previous work. In doing so, she was a rare human who was capable of simultaneously shining a light on both internal and external beauty for her clients, friends, and family.

Caryn was light and love personified. She was a luminous joybomb to everyone who met her and soaked up her smile, her effervescent personality, her sense of humor, and her radical, unconditionally loving inclusion. Caryn wove together community wherever she went and has left broken hearts of friends the world over whose work is now to carry on unconditional love for friends and strangers (friends-to-be) in her honor. It could be said that she was the center of our family; our warm and brilliant sun. She loved life and the art of living so intensely that, as predicted by friends and family for years, she outlived all expectations (even from her wonderful hospice nurse) and yes, was ultimately late to her own funeral.

Caryn loved flowers and always kept fresh blooms in her home; however, a few organizations were personally meaningful to her. Should you have interest in donating in her memory, please consider First Descents, which tested her mental strength and bonded her to other cancer warriors through rock climbing and surfing in Hawaii; American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, where Caryn volunteered to lobby senators for insurance coverage for colon cancer screenings for people other than 50+-year old men; or Kripalu. Above all else, flowers or memorial donations included, smile when you greet a stranger, choose to include a new friend, miracle a stranger at a sought-after concert, and look a friend in the eyes as you tell them how much they mean to you. Choose love, life, and compassion. There is no better way to honor Caryn.

Caryn is survived by her husband, Matthew K. O'Hara; mother, Mallory Antos; sister, Heather Antos (Ron Krauskopf); sister-in-love, Cathy O'Hara Harrison (Kevin); nephew, Maddox Harrison; and nieces, Juliette Harrison and Elliot & Nora Krauskopf, along with numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who have become family. We invite you to join us Saturday, July 29th at 6 pm at the Rose Pavilion in Charleston's Hampton Park, in a celebration of her life, followed by an epic dance party, of course. We'll get down to all of Caryn's favorites, from childhood disco faves to Madonna to Jay Z with a heavy dose of 90's hip hop. Please come dressed to reflect Caryn's luminous spirit: full of joy, sunshine, and a fierce love of fun and life. Her family & close friends will be dressed to send her walking on sunshine.