On Friday, December 18, Deborah Mullen accompanied her husband, Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, on a visit here at COB
Adder. Sgt. Monique Usher NCOIC of MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation)
for the Garrison Command asked me to meet Mrs. Mullen as part of her
tour of medical and MWR facilities. I have led two book discussion
groups since July. The six books we have read are by authors who have
been dead for half a century to two millenia.
Mrs. Mullen walked straight up to me and introduced herself, then asked
why I limit my book choice to dead authors. I told her that you know
dead authors are good by the judgment of history, that's never true with
living authors. She said I should try reading live authors which led to
a discussion of who and what I should read. In the end she is sending
me a copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary
Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
The choice shows how gracious and funny Mrs. Mullen is. The book has
two authors. Mary Ann Shaffer died last year. Annie Barrows is very
much alive. A charming compromise.
