QUINTLAND SISTERS

Quintland Sisters

by author Shelley Wood

Read by Lauren Butchart

Lauren Butchart reads The Quintland Sisters, representing the community of Hanover.

Originally from Burlington, Lauren worked for Oakville Public Library in various roles before being hired at the Hanover Library and moving to Grey County in 2013. At the Hanover Library, she was originally hired as Assistant Librarian of Technology, responsible for Online Resources and Social Media. Currently she is the Assistant Librarian of Collections, responsible for the selection of adult fiction, adult non-fiction, DVDs, and books on CD as well as managing the Inter library loans.

Her favourite part of the job is being able to select someone's next favourite book. Growing up visiting the library was her favourite pastime which lead her to choose a career in libraries. When she's not at work, she enjoys gardening, cross stitching and of course, reading. Her most-read genre is historical fiction and picture books to my 15-month-old son.

Introduction 

The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood tells the almost unbelievable tale of the birth of five identical girls, quintuplets (quints), called Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and Marie Dionne. Expectations for the survival of mother and children are very low. The babies especially are expected to die. For perspective, the probability of a woman naturally conceiving quintuplets is 1 in 57 million. The doctor who delivers the babies has never heard of five babies at once, he declares he has only read of four in medical school. We meet a shy withdrawn girl named Emma Trimpany, a young girl who assists at the difficult birth. She is there because she is bilingual, Mrs. Dionne speaks only French, Mr. Dionne speaks a little English. Mr. Oliva Dionne and Mrs. Elzire Dionne are poor French farming family, who already have five children. Set in the village of Corbeil and nearby township of Callendar Ontario, approximately 20 km east of North Bay. The Dionne farmhouse in Corbeil had no electricity and no telephone. Mr. Dionne was one of the few residents to own a car. 

In the mid-thirties the great depression is in full swing, millions of Canadians are unemployed, hungry and often homeless. One in five Canadians became dependent upon government relief for survival. Free healthcare will not exist in Ontario for another 30 years. Medical bills for round the clock nursing care and the care of the family will become the sole responsibility of Mr. Dionne, who is already poor. 

Plot Summary 

Emma Trimpany is shy seventeen year old when she assists at the harrowing birth of the Dionne quintuplets. Stunned by the long and difficult birth Emma is immediately captivated by the five fragile infants. Born two months premature, each baby weighted just 2-3 pounds. The combined weight of the babies at birth is 13 pounds and 6 ounces. Expectations for survival of mother and infants are so low no medical care is offered and Emma stays several days to assist the family. The babies shock everyone by living and thriving under the care of Emma, the nursing staff and Dr. Dafoe. Dafoe will put in place strict rules for who can and cannot touch the babies. At his insistence, the Dionne parents and other siblings are forbidden from touching or holding the babies. 

The birth immediately captures national and international attention. Streams of people come by the farmhouse to see the babies, and try to take their pictures. Reporters are outside day and night for any news. The Chicago World’s Fair offers a generous sum of money to Mr. Dionne to bring the quintuplets and his family to the upcoming fair, provided they are medically fit to travel. Mr. Dionne, thinking of the medical bills that are piling up, agrees. Before he signs the contract he consults with his parish priest for advice. The priest tells Mr. Dionne they are gifts from God and should be shared with the world. Additionally, the priest will act as business consult and get a share of the profits, which he wants to use to the benefit of the parish. Shocked by the decision to put the quintuplets on display the Ontario Government, under Premier Hepburn, will remove the quints, but not the other five Dionne children, from the custody of their parents and place them under the care of five guardians, Dr. Dafoe and Mr. Dionne among them. A hospital and nursery called The Dafoe Hospital and Nursery will be built across the road from the Dionne Farmhouse for the quints, nurses, housekeeper and other staff at the hospital to live in. 

The quints will be put on display twice a day for the more than 6000 daily visitors who pour into town.  Millions of dollars of tourism and advertisement endorsement deals begin to pour in, making the quints and Dr. Dafoe worth more than a million dollars. Mr. and Mrs. Dionne will suffer a long and bitter custody battle to get their children back. 

Emma will end up devoting her life to nursing and become an avid diary writer and artist, documenting her daily experiences at the Dafoe Nursery and Hospital, better known as Quintland. Emma believes she is living her dream life until a tragic event and the eventual end of the forced guardianship coincide and force her to make her own decisions. Emma will be forced to make decisions she will later question in her quest to make sure her beloved girls will be financially stable for their entire lives. 

Character Analysis

Emma Trimpany (main character)

Emma Trimpany is the main protagonist. She is a shy, sheltered girl with a large birthmark covering half her face. She has no direction for her life other than her doodling and sketching. Pushed by her mother to find a suitable career for herself she happens to accompany a local midwife on her next birth. Emma is bilingual, which was the main reason she was called to assist at the Dionne birth. Emma is heavily influenced by Dr. Dafoe’s opinions. Emma strongly believes she will live with the quints always and can’t imagine herself doing anything else. She shares Dr. Dafoe’s opinion that the best place for the quints is in the Dafoe Hospital. She is naïve about the world around her and refuses to believe a war in Europe is on the horizon. Emma has a great talent for painting and sketching. Dr. Dafoe will use this skill to sell her prints to advertisers who wish to use the quints to promote their products. Emma will be paid well for her work. She begins to see it as her duty to assist in padding the bank account of the quints, her opinion of the commercial activity is that it’s ensuring their financial stability. She never sees her actions as furthering the exploitation of the girls. 

Emma embodies the tug of war over what is best for the quints and who is really the best person to decide the kind of life they will live. Emma will slowly begin to see the actions of Dr. Dafoe, and the hospital staff as damaging to the girls. Emma’s fatal flaw is her refusal to see the wider world and examine that her actions may have contributed to the damage done to the quints. 

Mrs. Elzire Dionne (supporting character)

Mrs. Elzire Dionne is a petite woman, heavy set from several pregnancies. She is young, just 25 at the time of the quints birth. Devoutly Roman Catholic she struggles to ensure her daughters are brought up with catholic values. Mrs. Dionne speaks only French. She is anguished by strict rules that forbade her from holding her babies. She longs to be reunited as one family. She will constantly clash with the nursing staff over care of the girls. Mrs. Dionne will call out Dr. Dafoe for his contradictory behaviour. She is described by Emma as a sour person who often ruins the quints fun when they are not behaving like proper young ladies. 

Mr. Oliva Dionne (supporting character)

Mr. Oliva Dionne is a short, stout man. He is described by Emma to often be terse and unsmiling. He is also described to be a devoted family man who worries how to feed and care for his children. Mr. Dionne constantly clashes with Dr. Dafoe over the strict rules and schedules for the quints. He is outraged for his wife who longs to hold and care for her babies. Mr. Dionne speaks French and some English. Mr. Dionne is driven and determined to see his family reunited and living under one roof. He will speak to several lawyers before he finds one who is willing to sue the provincial government on his behalf. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dionne move the plot forward in their quest to get the guardianship ended. Dr. Dafoe clashes with them as often as he can to stop them. Emma shows her fatal flaw often by being unaware and often uncaring of the plight of the parents. 

Dr. Allan Dafoe (main character)

 Dr. Dafoe is middle aged man with a mustache. Widowed without children, Dr. Dafoe is devoted to his medical practice, serving several rural French families. He speaks no French, and has made no effort to learn despite practicing medicine in the predominantly French area for 20 years. Dr. Dafoe is protestant, and shows distain for the French catholic families who have dozens of children. He believes strongly that Mr. and Mrs. Dionne are unfit parents for the quints because they are poor and uneducated. He fears them being put on display and cannot fathom how Mrs. Dionne would care for 10 children at once in the small farmhouse. Dr. Dafoe is in charge of all staffing decisions at the Dafoe Hospital and will constantly hire only English speaking nurses. Dr. Dafoe will direct his staff to only allow visits from the parents at specific times of the day and never to interfere with the public viewing schedule. 

 Dr. Dafoe will accept nearly every advertisement, movie and newsreel contract offered to the quints, which will mean millions for the girls and for him directly. Dafoe believes it is his duty to remain guardian as long as possible to safeguard the girl from exploitation he is sure the parents will bring to his girls. Dafoe describes himself a “just a simple country doctor” but begins to lavish the fame that comes with being doctor to the famous Dionne quintuplets. Dafoe will profit vastly from his daily newspaper articles, lecture tours and speaking engagements. He will not accept his own diminished status when the girls’ popularity begins to wane. Dr. Dafoe’s refusal to see the girls as persons of their own and not things will be his main downfall. 

Nurse Yvonne (Ivy) Leroux (supporting character)

Ivy is a young and beautiful nurse in her first assignment since graduating. Ivy is bilingual and is one of the few nurses the Dionne family approves of. Ivy and Emma become immediate friends. Ivy will be one of the longest serving nurses at the Dafoe hospital apart from Emma. Ivy will act as the voice of reason for Emma. Ivy constantly pushes Emma to think of her future and what kind of life she wants to have then the quints are grown up. Ivy’s opinion of what is best for the quints and who has the right to decide will clash with Emma’s sheltered view often. Ivy will be fired for her dissenting opinions on what is best for the quints. Ivy will go on a lecture tour about her work with the quints much to the ire of Dr. Dafoe, who feels her tour cuts into his own profitable speaking tour. 

Theme Analysis

The large themes that present themselves are taken directly from the battle to have the quints returned to their parents; French vs. English, Catholic vs. Protestant, and what is in the best interests for the children. If the quints were born English and protestant they would have never been taken away from their parents. The opinion of the Hepburn government, Dr. Dafoe and Emma herself are directly taken from the mainstream opinion that because the Dionne are French and catholic they are deserving of their poverty and unable to properly care for or protect the quints from exploitation. There were no concerns for the safety, wellbeing and care of the other five Dionne children. The five other Dionne children were never removed nor ever threatened with removal. This point was one of the main argument’s Mr. Dionne’s lawyer will use in his defense in addition to the denial of the right of the parents to have their children brought up in their native language. The Dionne parents plead constantly for privacy and that their only wish is to be left to raise their children in peace away from the public. 

This long drawn out legal battle is all presented through Emma’s eyes and coloured with her bigoted opinion that is heavily influenced by Dr. Dafoe. For the majority of the novel Emma is certain that the best and only place for the quints is at the Dafoe Hospital. She struggles to see how the Dionne family can care and love the babies better than her and the other staff. As a reader and a mother it’s constantly irritating to listen to her assertions. 

Hypocrisy is another theme that is very present. The main reason for the removal of the quints was to stop their exhibition at the Chicago World’s Fair. Then the Hepburn government proceeds to build a hospital and exhibition playground for the girls to be displayed several times a day. Which was paid for entirely out of the quints' fund, not at government expense. Greed and fame were main motivating factors by the government of the day. The quints brought in thousands of tourists which mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in many pockets. The Dionne family retain legal counsel to assist them in regaining custody and the Ontario Government immediately extend the guardianship from a few months, to 2 years and then again to 18 years, assuming the Dionnes only want their children to profit from them. Each time the Dionnes would bring a challenge to get their children back or present their side in the media the Hepburn government would extend the guardianship. Of course the only persons who profited the most were Premier Hepburn, the Ontario government, Dr. Dafoe and the businesses Corbeil and Callendar. 

Relevance for today 

If a set of natural quintuplets was born today, would they fare better? They certainly would. The reasons for the removal would never happen today. The circus-like atmosphere that Quintland took on was not frowned upon the way it would be today. Even the display of the children themselves was not seen as damaging. We know better now. Social assistance and medical coverage would provide much needed help — all things that were not in existence in the early thirties, which I believe directly contributed to the Dionne parents accepting the contract from the Chicago World’s Fair. 

Today, children growing up in the age of social media face similar challenges of being on display constantly. Privacy and the rights of the child are far more important now. Society is also quicker to condemn any parent who seems to profit off their child. This book can serve as a cautionary tale and a warning to parents of multiples, the danger of allowing the children to be raised in the public eye. The Dionne quintuplets themselves wrote an open letter to the parents of the McCarthy sextuplets in 1997. Warning them that “multiple births should not be confused with entertainment, nor should they be an opportunity to sell products”.

Summary 

I found his book very difficult to read. As a new mother myself, I can’t imagine how hard it would be to be told you can’t hold your new baby, can’t touch them, and can’t kiss them. The anguish the Dionne parents felt I can’t even describe. Knowing the history of the Dionnes already I was prepared for the tragic nature of the story. That being said, it was upsetting to read. You can’t help but put yourself in the shoes of others and feel just as powerless. Shelley Wood said she wrote the book to capture the element of the story that can’t be pinned down by facts. The surviving sisters would scarcely recall the first five years of their lives, newspaper articles of the time are more similar to propaganda than actual facts, and anyone else who would have lived through that time has since died. The story itself is in danger of being lost to history as the generation most fascinated by the quints is also disappearing. The actual Dafoe hospital is now abandoned and there is no marker on the road to identify it.

I would recommend this to lovers of historical fiction. Anyone who is fascinated by Canadian history will want to read the strange and sad tale of the saga of the Dionne Quintuplets.