It was difficult to tell who was having a better time at the Friends of the Library event on Friday night: the speaker, Melissa Strong, or an adoring audience of friends and Estes Park residents.
Strong, 52, is the author of the newly released memoir, “Climbing Through: A Courageous Story of Grit, Healing and Second Chances” (Falcon, 2026), which tells the story of a terrible accident and her recovery from it.
This is a very local story. An Estes Park resident since 1996, Strong has three great passions: working in the hospitality sector (including years at Ed’s Cantina and the Dunraven before opening Bird & Jim), rock-climbing/bouldering, and writing.
She said she had always written, even as a young girl, but later earned a degree in literature from Loyola University in New Orleans. Climbing became a lifelong love after she moved to Estes, and it seemed natural to write about it.
Working in a restaurant and bar suited her lifestyle, too, and after 20 years of experience, it seemed natural to open a restaurant.
Then, in April of 2017, came the tragic accident that would change her life. Strong was outside in her driveway, burning electrical designs on wooden chair legs for the new restaurant, Bird & Jim, when she made a near-fatal mistake and electrocuted herself, severely burning her hands.
“Those 20 seconds will be with me forever,” Strong said. “I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t shake my hands. I couldn’t fall over. I accepted the fact that I was dying.”
Yet, she came back. But then she had a huge decision to make.
“When they showed me my hands in the hospital, it was horrific,” she said. The diagnosis was grim. Would she ever be able to use her fingers again?
Strong was tempted to her depths to give up, to jump into a pit of despair and never leave.
Yet she wrote notes in the hospital, “cold, remote, and distant,” not realizing that she would later call upon those facts for her book.
“I did not know what my future would be,” she said. Her husband, Adam, whom she met while mountain climbing, did not think she would ever climb again.
Somehow, Strong made the right decision.
“I thought I wouldn’t heal if I jumped in that pit of despair,” she said. “I was hopeful someone could help me. I thought about friends and family and the hard times they had gone through…and it gave me strength.”
Strong had also begun work on Bird & Jim.
“I had a restaurant to open, and I wasn’t going to give up,” she said. “That was a great distraction.”
After a series of agonizing operations, Strong and her team were able to open the restaurant in October of 2017. And, slowly, she was able to return to her sport. Not at the same level, she is quick to point out, but at a level to be proud of.
Then came a writing workshop in 2019, and her determination to write a book.
“Sharing the truth is not always easy,” she said. “I had to write about the worst mistake I made in my life. I needed to forgive myself and move forward.”
Strong said she didn’t let anyone read an advance copy of “Climbing Through,” not her mother, not her husband.
“I didn’t want it to be altered by anyone else’s opinion,” she said. “It was my heart.”
She poured herself into writing the book just as she had previously put everything she had into climbing and running the restaurant.
But when she began suffering from crippling migraines, she realized that something had to give. She began stepping back from some of her responsibilities.
“That’s when I realized you have to ask for help,” she said. “Maybe I’m finally getting balanced.”
And as to why she was given a second chance at life, she now has a theory.
“Maybe it’s writing this story and sharing it with people,” she said. She chose hope over despair, gratitude over bitterness.
“I hope people know how important we are in each other’s lives,” Strong said. “Human kindness is more important than we ever know.”
The Estes Women’s Business Network will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, at he Bird’s Nest for dinner and a talk by Strong. Dinner menu: Neopolitan pizza buffet, wine, soft beverages, $30. Click here to RSVP.
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