The inspiring story of the world most famous bear

Not everybody knows this story. I didn’t. Even if it’s familiar what a heart-warmer to start the New Year.

In Christmas shopping I came across a children’s book called “Finding Winnie,” with the subtitle “The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear.” I intended to gift it to the grands — and ended up adding it to my collection. They’ll just have to read it when they come over.

In August 1914, a young Canadian veterinarian was riding the train on the first leg of his trip to the war in Europe, where he would care for soldiers’ horses. On his travel from his hometown of Winnipeg the train stopped at White River. He got out for a stretch and encountered a trapper on a bench with what he thought was a baby. The baby turned out to be a bear cub.

Harry offered $20 for the bear, named her Winnie for his hometown, and transported her across the ocean to Europe. She became the mascot of the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade.

When the order came that winter to go to battle in France Harry knew it would be too dangerous for Winnie at the front. So he drove her to the London Zoo.

One day a boy visited that zoo with his father. He had a stuffed bear at home he was having trouble naming. When he saw Winnie that decided him. He named his bear Winnie-the-Pooh.

The boy, Christopher Robin Milne, came many times to the zoo to spend time with Winnie. He was even allowed in her enclosure to play. Afterward he’d have adventures with his own Winnie in the wood bordering his home. His father, Alan Alexander Milne, wrote stories about all these adventures.

When the war was over Harry Colbourn left Winnie at the zoo — after seeing how adjusted and happy she was. She lived there until her death in 1934.

What an incredible story! It would seem the probability of such a strand of events would be an impossibility. But it all really happened. And in the last hundred years thousands of children have grown up with the beloved stories of Winnie-the-Pooh.

Heading into a new year — jumping from the teens to the 20s — is a perfect time to invest in “impossible probables.” Those wonderful ideas and visions and dreams we may not even know we have — ones that unfold and reveal themselves in ways we wouldn’t expect.

Just to be on the lookout for such things is a 2020 adventure worth taking.