Yesterday I got to my real mail and found a letter from Venice, Florida. The writer thanked me for the article I had written about her city, and especially for its mention of the trapeze school, as she was the "old woman dressed all in black" that someone had told me had been taking lessons.

With the letter was an article she had written for a magazine. Reading it, I learned that not only was she a senior trapeze artist, she was a cancer survivor. In 1999 she had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and given at most six months to live.

Yet, in October of 2004 - at the age of 79 - she "performed on the flying trapeze before a gasping, awe-struck audience at the opening ceremonies of the Venice Circus Bridge."

In closing her letter, she mentioned "a new health challenge" as well as her "striving for a return to the flying trapeze in the very near future."

Then, after signing her name, she wrote: "Life is a Circus!"