Marlee Misses The Stories At Marleewood

Marlee was really missing Marleewood and Grandma Lu. Because of this sickness that was going around Marleewood was closed. She went out to the kitchen and found her Grandma B. "Isn't there any way that we can see Grandma Lu, B? I miss her stories."
Grandma B reminded her that once in awhile they chat with her on their phones. Marlee still wasn't happy about it, but went back to playing with Grandma B's new puppy, Zeke. He was always taking her Barbies away so she had to watch him carefully. He was really cute and fluffy after his bath.

Grandma B had heard from her friend Liz, that one of her boys, Jaxson, was having a virtual birthday party on an app called Zoom. "I wonder if that would work for Grandma Lu to tell stories to the children." She went to work and found out how to do it. The next problem was to teach Grandma Lu how when she had to keep a social distance of six feet away. "Hmm, this might present a problem, but I'll give it a whirl."

Together, over the phone, Grandma Lu caught on how to do a conference Zoom story group so now the rest was up to Grandma B to call everyone to invite them. The ones that didn't have the app did so and once quite a few people were ready Grandma Lu invited them all to listen to a story that Marlee had asked her about a long time ago. She had said that her Grandma B had a movie called Beauty and the Beast. She wanted to know if that story was true or just make believe.

A long time ago Grandma Lu had been looking for some information on something entirely different and had found the answer, but had never had a chance to tell Marlee or any of the children about it. It was really something that she thought that she would never tell because she had put all of her papers away. She was a bit forgetful sometimes, and often forgot where she put things, but when she found them by accident it was always a fun surprise.

"Hmm, I guess I should clean more often. Gracious sakes, I need a better filing system, that's for sure. Oh, I hope I can do this. Well, it's almost two o'clock, I'd better get my hat on and my notes straight. I'm scared to death of this thing. Here goes nothing..."

"Hello, everyone this is Grandma Lu. Oh I guess you already knew that. You have to forgive me, this is so new. Oh, I can see you guys. Some of you I haven't seen forever! Are you all feeling okay? Are you getting some sunshine? Good, Well, Marlee wanted to know if the Beauty and the Beast story was true. Well, the movie one isn't; it's a fun movie, but guess what there was really a Beauty and the Beast hundreds of years ago. It's not a fun story, it's actually quite sad, but I thought you might be interested in how history somehow always evolves or turns into a movie someday. Sometimes they are make believe movies, but sometimes those movies are true stories as well."

"I found these notes falling out of an old file I had, so bear with me while I get all these facts straight. Okay, it all started out with a little street urchin who didn't have a mama or a daddy and no house to live in. Her name was Catherine. She lived in a country far far away that is called France about four hundred years ago. It is quite a story.