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My friend Dawn surprised me with a gift a framed photo. Pictured around a tea-party table are the two of us, our Marmees, Dawns sister, Kerri, her niece, Gentry, and my daughter, Kristen.

That photo tugs at me with a magnetic pull. I placed it on a bookcase shelf, and I cant pass it by without stopping for another look.

But, wait. Youre still stuck on Marmees. As in, what is a Marmee?

The original Marmee is the mother of the March sisters in Little Women, Louisa May Alcotts classic novel. Chances are youve seen one of the four screen versions (three films and one mini-series). The latest Little Women has been in theaters for a while now. I liked it, but its not my favorite.

The acting was superb, but the conservative in me didnt like the way director Greta Gerwig took the liberty to add not so subtle liberal messages to Alcotts classic. If right-leaners put an obvious dose of conservative spin on, say, The Handmaids Tale, left-leaners wouldnt like it either.

Still, I seldom allow politics to influence my attitude toward entertainment. Left or right is not the reason that the version of Little Women playing in a theater near me is not my number one pick.

The 1994 film starring Susan Sarandon and Wynona Ryder is my favorite Little Women. Sarandon and I stand like boxers in opposite corners of the political spectrum, but shes a gifted actress and Im, well, not a gifted actress.

Little Women is about mothers and daughters. The women pictured in the frame Dawn gifted me are mothers, daughters and granddaughters. Once upon a time before I had children of my own five of the women in that photo started holding mother-daughter get-togethers.

We meet for lunch. We go to dinner. We enjoy mother-daughter (and granddaughter) tea parties. And we go to movies.

The mother-daughters have no qualms about walking out on a movie that is offensive. We arent quiet when someone or something in a film makes us laugh or cry. We will see movies more than once if we really, really like themfilms like Grease.

We have seen that classic multiple times, but did not hesitate to go again way back when it returned to theaters for its 20th anniversary. The mother-daughters bought tickets for a weeknight and soon discovered that we had the theater all to ourselves just us.

We stood up in our seats and sang out loud with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. We danced up and down the aisles. Never did it occur to us that an employee was required to man the projection room. It mattered not. Oh, what a night.

We were talking about Marmees and a photograph, which has everything to do with a movie Little Women. Louisa May Alcotts maternal character was not Mother, Mom, Mum, or Mommy. She was and is Marmee.

In 1994, after watching the story of the March sisters and their Marmee play out onscreen, we daughters and granddaughters dubbed the two queen mothers of our group, The Marmees. For 26 years and running, the Marmees theyve remained.

We need to schedule a tea party (or dinner or a movie), Ill say to Dawn and Kerri.

Lets check with the Marmees and see what they say, is always their answer mine, too, when the dialogue is reversed.

Little Women 1994 is my favorite because I saw it with the mother-daughters. The photograph Dawn gave me brings that memory to mind, as well as other good times past and the promise of more to come.

It reminds me that relationships are the key ingredient to true fulfillment in this thing we call life. Dawn and Kerri are sisters of my heart. After all, we share two Marmees.

Genny McCutcheon can be reached at genrmac@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @VievesVine.

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The mother-daughters | Columns - WV News