December 18

The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets (2019)
By Sarah Miller

As a little girl I recall being enchanted with pictures of the darling Dionne quintuplets.  Although they were already 15 years old when I was born, they were still very much a novelty and, as the title suggests, it was a miracle they survived.  Weighing a combined 13.5 lbs, they were born in the bedroom of a remote French Canadian farmhouse.  Their 24-year-old mother, who was giving birth for the 7th time, was feeling unwell but expecting a single baby.  A local doctor was called in to assist with the birth, and when he saw the size and number of the infants, he asked Mr Dionne to bring in the priest, assuming they would not survive.  Meanwhile he kept them warm by placing them near an open oven door, and later by an old-fashioned incubator heated by hot water, as the farmhouse had no electricity.

The doctor who was present at the birth quickly spread the news, and a photojournalist arrived and arranged the babies for photos within 6 hours of their birth.  A bilingual nurse was engaged to assume the babies' care and they miraculously survived.  As they grew, so did public interest.  The Red Cross, and soon the Canadian government (through an official act), stepped in to take control of the girls, who were set up in a small hospital built across from the farmhouse.  The girls would be put on display twice daily so visitors could observe them at play during prescribed hours in the morning and afternoon.  The girls' father and aunt built souvenir shops near the quints' hospital. The girls had their own life, isolated from their parents and siblings.  Aside from publicity appearances, they knew little of the world outside the hospital.  At age nine, they were returned to their parents' custody, an arrangement that both the quints and their parents/siblings found uncomfortable.  Eventually, they left home for college or convent, but it took years for these women, raised as curiosities, to find comfort outside the rigid strictures of their upbringing.  As adults, they learned that millions of dollars had accrued to an account in their names, the result of many products (e.g. Madame Alexander Dionne quint dolls) for which they received royalties, but that their father had spent down the account.

I could hardly put this book down.  These beautiful little girls were such innocent victims of society, of selfish parents who profited from their children's celebrity, and even of the well-meaning doctor and nurses who regulated their every move.  Two of the quints, now in their 80s, are still living; they are survivors in more ways than one.