A FERMANAGH woman who was badly disfigured in a fire that took the life of her older sister 23 years ago has published a book about how she rebuilt her life. Melanie Grimsley (25), who was badly injured in a 1988 car fire that killed her sister Amanda, recounts in Beauty for Asheshow she fashioned a productive life despite terrible burns and a negative reaction from some people.
The married mother of two has dedicated the book to her late sister, who was almost three in April 1988 when a fire swept through the family car after their mother went into a shop in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, to buy milk.
Ms Grimsley had to undergo scores of painful skin-graft operations to her face and hands. Her book addresses how the regular staring by strangers affected her and how after she assured one man she had not sustained her injuries in the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh, he asked “are you sure?”, adding she looked like she had been there.
After she offered to help a customer in a shop in which she was working, the woman jumped and said to her, “Oh my God, I thought you were wearing a mask.”
The book, co-written with journalist Ivan Little, was endorsed by Simon Weston, the British soldier who sustained horrific burns in the Falklands war after his ship was bombed in 1982. “Melanie’s strength shines through, along with a powerful message that, I am certain, will help others to overcome adversity of any kind,” he said.
Her plastic surgeon, Roy Millar, said the book was a testimony of hope and “a timely challenge to the superficial issues of style, appearance and celebrity”.
