As a teen, Wendy Lee suffered a sports injury and massage therapy helped her to feel better again.

She says that experience “changed her world” leading her to a career doing something that was already natural for her — helping others. Lee has spent about four decades working as a massage therapist first part-time and for the last 25 years as a full-time career.

She says it’s been rewarding to create relationships with her patients and help them heal through massage.

“Massage has really become therapeutic,” she said. “It’s being recognized for its use in pre and post-surgery situations, and the medical world is recognizing its benefits and working with us just as they work with physical therapists and chiropractors. We’re all on the same team.”

Earlier this year she sold her business, Fifth Avenue Massage, to one of her coworkers and is now in a semi-retirement phase working just a few days per week.

“I really want to thank everyone for trusting and believing in me, and for frequenting my schedule,” she said. “I feel so blessed and thank God for all the people that I’ve met and for the people that have come to see me every week for the last 25 years.”

When Lee first visited Whitefish in the spring of 1982, by day three she knew she wasn’t leaving. She had just graduated from massage school a few years prior.

“I wanted to ski and do massage,” she said. “Who knew that was the beginning of 40 years of adventure, wonderful relationships, friends and a healthy career of massage therapy.”

At first, she worked on Big Mountain in the day and gave massages out of Kandahar Lodge or by visiting clients. She says she was one of three massage therapists working in the north end of the valley.

Eventually, she took a year of education at the School of Good Medicine Massage, which led to teaching there for 13 years. In 2013 she was named the Best Massage Therapist in the Pilot’s Best of Whitefish.

She had several offices before founding Fifth Avenue Massage. Lee feels blessed to have come to Whitefish and then built her business when others were doing just the same.

“It was a time in life when there were a bunch of us just trying to figure it out,” she said. “We were trying our best at entrepreneurship. It was an inspiring time to be in Whitefish.”

Her own business allowed her to handpick her co-workers over the last 10 years creating a place that focuses on offering a relaxing and therapeutic environment for getting a massage. Now she’s turned the business over to Robin Brooks, who has been at Fifth Avenue for more than eight years.

Looking back as she heads toward retirement, Lee says though she has no idea how many remain she’ll keep honoring the gift certificates out there though likely won’t be selling anymore.

“I want to thank this wonderful community of great people for trusting me, believing in me and my gifts of touch and healing but most of all your incredible support by continuing to frequent my schedule often for years and years,” she said.