Marilyn Debora Management Consulting

Thank you my friend and sister-in-Christ PO3 Phyllis Maynard for making us aware that Marilyn Deborah will be interviewed on WIZS com/towntalk/ on Wednesday, December 29, 2021 at 11am EST/EDT. 'Marilyn will be discussing resilience, the ability to bounce back from difficulties. In addition, there will be a treat. She is going to discuss the backstory of Winnie the Pooh and his friends.'

The T.r.a.g.i.c True Origin Story of Winnie the Pooh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpUOpNupf9c

Images;
1. Christopher Robin feeding honey to the real “Winnie” bear at the London Zoo.
2. Christopher Robin Milne and his teddy bear, Winnie.
3. Christopher was just a toddler, playing with A.A. Milne, Winnie, and a stuffed penguin.
4. Christopher and Lesley de Selincour loved each other very much. They were first cousins

'Winnie the Pooh and his best friend Christopher Robin are two characters that are known and loved all over the world. They have appeared in books, poems, cartoons, and movies, and have been translated into dozens of languages. But few people in modern times know that Christopher Robin and Pooh were both very real, and the children’s stories are loosely based on reality.
However, the true story of what went into the making of Winnie the Pooh is much darker than most people could imagine. What started out as a story of childhood innocence turned into a media machine that was out of control. This is a story of a lonely little boy who became a child star and the adults whose careers could never quite match the expectations that Winnie the Pooh places on them.Alan Alexander Milne, or A.A. Milne for short, was an editor and writer for London’s Punch magazine. He specialized in comedic political commentary. He was also an acclaimed playwright. Audiences loved his clever wit, and he made a name for himself in the industry. He married a socialite named Dorothy de Sélincourt, or “Daphne” for short. She was estranged from her extended family and focused instead on the joys of living among the London upper-class- going to parties, re-decorating her home, and so on. The Milnes enjoyed having a marriage where they acted like they were still single. They each spent time with their own friends, and they would go on dates to parties and to see the newest London plays. Milne would go to The Garrick Club in London to grab a drink and spend time with his buddies. All was well in the world until A.A. Milne was drafted into World War I.

When he returned, he was traumatized by what he saw in the war. When the war ended in 1918, he wanted to write about his thoughts and feelings against war in general, but no one was interested in reading about it. They wanted to move on from the sadness and loss, and the public wanted more comedy, so he continued to write his jokes and plays. In 1920, the Milnes gave birth to their son, Christopher Robin, but they decided to call him “Billy”, because they had disagreed on a name, and decided it was easier to just call him a nickname. As a young child, he did not know how to pronounce “Milne”, and instead said, “Moon”. So, they called him “Billy Moon”, instead of his real name, Christopher Robin. One of his first gifts was a teddy bear that Daphne named “Edward”, and the boy grew up with it as his companion.

Time to Grow Up

After ending the Winnie the Pooh series, people were not nearly as interested in anything else A.A. Milne had to write. He tried to go back to writing plays since they were once his bread and butter. Unfortunately, critics called his main character “Christopher Robin all grown up”, and everything was always compared to Winnie the Pooh. He wrote other books for adults, but none of them ever even got close to the fame of his children’s characters. This made him feel as though people truly knew and loved his son, rather than his writing.

The illustrator, E.H. Shepherd, also had a rough time with his career after the books came out. His real career was being a political cartoonist for Punch Magazine, and he never planned on working in children’s literature. He wanted his legacy to be about his witty humor in political commentary, not for something in a children’s book. Whenever anyone talked about Winnie the Pooh, he called him a “silly old bear“. Even after he died, all of his sketches were auctioned off. Everything that was involved in Christopher Robin or Winnie the Pooh was sold for huge amounts of money, but his political cartoons sold for much less.

When Christopher Robin grew up, he went to Cambridge University, and he served in World War II. When he began applying for a full-time job, every single interview ended up turning into a conversation about Winnie the Pooh. This sickened Christopher, and he just wanted to be a normal person who was judged for their own accomplishments, and not pre-judged based on a fictional version of his childhood self. He resented this so strongly, he refused to take any of the money that the books made.

At 27, Christopher Robin met a young woman named Lesley de Selincourt, who just so happened to be his first cousin. Since his mother was estranged from her family, he never met that side of the family before. So, meeting Lesley was like meeting a stranger, and they fell madly in love with one another. After they got married, his mother Daphne was very vocal about how unhappy she was about their relationship, and she could only talk about all of the reasons why she hated her family. This made Christopher Robin’s relationship with his mom even worse than it was before, and when his father died, he completely stopped talking to her.

Christopher and Lesley opened up a bookstore, and they lived happily on their modest income. Tragically, their first and only child, Clare, was born with cerebral palsy. She was wheelchair-bound for her entire life and unable to take care of herself. Even though he did not want any of the money for himself, Christopher had to accept money from the Winnie the Pooh estate to pay for his daughter’s medical expenses."

FYI SPC Diana D. SPC Margaret Higgins Cpl Mark A. Morris
PO1 Howard BarnesMSG Greg KellySPC Paul C.CWO4 Terrence Clark Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC William WilsonCSM Bob StanekPO3 Edward RiddleA1C Mike AllenSPC John BryantSgt Larry IrvineCSM Tony BlairSGT David SchraderPO2 Marco Monsalve

Good stuff!

PO3 Phyllis Maynard Thanks for the info!