Adventures in Living

Youngsters often say they want to join a circus, become a fireman or police officer, or sail the seas looking for adventure, but those types of excitement often elude the majority of us. Not so with this family. Circus life was a business, sea-faring became more than a far-fetched dream. Imagine if you can, a broken-hearted violinist playing a last request for his dying wife. Picture a circus owner coping with escaping gorillas and out-of-control lions. How about an aging man waiting for marriage and children until he's past the age when most men are dead and buried? Doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, judges, soldiers, aristocracy as well as those who have nothing but the clothes on their back. Members of Kim Gilley's family were strong participants, not spectators, in their own lives. The legacies they left their children and grandchildren were those of love, passion, commitment, and unwavering courage. Families included: Gilley, Wardell, Stromberg, Manders, Freeman, Hoffman, Hammond, Mulcahy, O'Brien, Nevin, Anzmann, and others.