| copy | Albert Ringer was born in a trunk to circus parents, but another kind of circus trunk played a more important role in his life years later. He grew up as an itinerant wrestler and roustabout in the reknowned Ringer Brothers and Betty and Bernie's Circus. Once known in the literary world only as Anne Ringer's wrestling brother, he became a writer while recuperating from a near-fatal injury received during a charity benefit bout with a gorilla. Slingshotting himself from the ring ropes, Albert flew over the gorilla's head and would have landed head first on the concrete. He was saved from certain death by Nana, an elephant he befriended as a child, who caught him in her trunk. Nana held him so tightly that three ribs cracked and he turned blue from lack of oxygen. I was delirious. I had an out-of-body experience! My whole life passed before me. I promised myself 'If I get through this, I'll use my remaining time to share what I learned out there.' I owe it all to Nana! |