by Sarah Miller
“in sole charge of their health and hygiene,” “The physical, intellectual, moral,” “The doctor declares,” and “This is the best New Year’s news”: “Reunion Is Slated of Quints, Parents; Dafoe Resigns Post,” Toronto Globe, December 29, 1939.
“A curious lack of reality”: Brough, We Were Five, 90.
“So we were only too happy”: Brough, We Were Five, 91.
“She put her hand close to my ear”: Francis Talbot, “The Quints Are Now Seven and They Long to Go Home,” America, August 16, 1941.
“and thus save them”: America, August 16, 1941 (table of contents).
“eager to please anybody and everybody”: Brough, We Were Five, 90.
“They were fine until the parents came”: Doreen Chaput, interviewed in The Dionne Quintuplets.
“Yvonne and Émilie whispered to me”: Barker, The Dionne Legend, 194.
“It would be fitting to say”: Brough, We Were Five, 94.
“Émigrees from our home”: Brough, We Were Five, 101.
“We knew instinctively the emotions”: Brough, We Were Five, 95.
“People on the program drilled us”: Brough, We Were Five, 96.
“I don’t want to speak English”: Frederick Edwards, “The Quint Question,” Maclean’s, July 15, 1941.
“Five little chins became stubborn”: “Quint Broadcast Causes Big Stir,” North Bay Nugget, May 15, 1941.
“We, the English-speaking peoples of Canada”: “The Quints’ Broadcast,” Toronto Star, May 17, 1941.
“If the quints won’t speak English”: “A Little of Everything,” Toronto Star, May 27, 1941.
“insurrection”: Edwards, “The Quint Question.”
“a private little chuckle”: “Quints Birthday Ends at ‘Mike,’ ” North Bay Nugget, May 29, 1941.
“I do not know what got into them” and “in excellent English”: Edwards, “The Quint Question.”
“They just wouldn’t go near him”: Doreen Chaput, interviewed in The Dionne Quintuplets.
“He looked much older”: Brough, We Were Five, 98.
“Do you think…that there was a better way”: McLeod, “My Neighbors the Quints.”
“I feel that my usefulness” and “They were sweet children”: “Dafoe Bids Quints Good-by; ‘I’ve Done My Best,’ He Says,” Toronto Star, February 16, 1942.
CHAPTER 29
“I was disappointed in them”: Clark, “Just One Great Big Unhappy Family.”
“exactly the sort of place”: Marshall, “Private Life of the Dionne Quints.”
“I wouldn’t want children of my own”: Marguerite Mooers Marshall, “The Five Unluckiest Children in the World,” Liberty, January 27, 1940. (Note: Yvonne Leroux’s handwritten draft entitled “The Five Unluckiest Children” can be found in the Leroux-Davis fonds, Archives of Ontario, microfilm reel 3650.)
“The guards wouldn’t let me in the enclosure”: Clark, “Just One Great Big Unhappy Family.”
“Among ourselves, there was obviously never any question”: Brough, We Were Five, 51.
“We were treated as five”: Brough, We Were Five, 120.
“I suffered a lot when young”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
CHAPTER 30
“We will ask God”: “Dr. Dafoe Is Dead; End Comes Suddenly,” North Bay Nugget, June 2, 1943.
“because we knew, without being told”: Brough, We Were Five, 104.
“It cost me $75,000”: Brough, We Were Five, 99.
“The fable was”: Brough, We Were Five, 101.
“It was a haven to us”: Brough, We Were Five, 102.
“Like that” and “Without being prepared”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“the little girls”: Soucy, 7.
“Now, we’re one big family”: Soucy, 12.
“Every instinct urged us” and “We clearly seemed as strange”: Brough, We Were Five, 103.
“These were very hurt people”: Connie Vachon, interviewed in The Dionne Quintuplets.
“If we spanked one of those kids”: Griffiths, “Showing of Quints May Be Ended This Year.”
“In each other’s presence, they competed”: Brough, We Were Five, 117.
“For sure, the grief ruined her health”: Soucy, 24.
“Did a nurse tell you to do that?”: Soucy, 70.
“I think sometimes she didn’t realize”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 168.
Brat: Soucy, 52.
Stupid: Soucy, 57.
Crazy: Soucy, 5.
Dirty pig: Soucy, 70.
“If I’d raised you, you’d be normal”: Soucy, 37.
“The most important lesson”: Brough, We Were Five, 102.
“We were convinced that we had brought misery”: Brough, We Were Five, 119.
“behaved toward each other”: Brough, We Were Five, 118; for Elzire Dionne’s own acknowledgment of guilt, see also “Parents Saddened as Noted Infants Celebrate Birthday,” North Bay Nugget, May 27, 1935, and Taylor, “Parents of Dionne Quints Bitterly Resent the Removal of the Girls.”
“If only I could have been a single child”: Brough, We Were Five, 119.
“Their return was a true celebration”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 225.
“My mother didn’t have a lot of education”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 226.
“Despite all that she had to endure”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 227.
“Yet there was lots of joy”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 235.
“Christmas—that was real family life”: Berton, The Dionne Years, 209.
“We had been ordered to mix”: Brough, We Were Five, 120.
“We were raised to live a normal life”: Fennell, “The Forgotten Dionnes.”
“The girls grew up in captivity”: Fennell, “The Forgotten Dionnes.”
“Our first instinct”: Brough, We Were Five, 106.
“My god!…The grand mal!”: Soucy, 56.
“Now, no one will know” and “If anyone found out”: Soucy, 58.
“How do you feel?” and “As long as you’re with me”: Soucy, 60.
“any stormy scene from which she could not escape” and “The cry coming from her bedroom”: Brough, We Were Five, 107.
“It is lovely”: “Dionnes Reunited Under Single Roof,” Toronto Star, November 17, 1943.
“truth and falsehood.”: Brough, We Were Five, 105.
“like sheep”: “ ‘Papa’ Dionne’s Own Story,” Detroit Free Press, December 5, 1954.
“We were caught”: Brough, We Were Five, 120.
“the strong one, the decisive one”: Soucy, 38.
“You are no longer children”: Soucy, 37.
“I would like to put light”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 145.
“During difficult moments”: Sarah-Maud Lefebvre, “Encore traumatisées plusieurs décennies après,” Le Journal de Montreal, October 22, 2016.
“My mother said that I had the same eyes”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 209.
“I think Cécile, in the Big House”: Annette Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“the one quickest to show kindness” and “her nature seemed to turn in on itself”: Brough, We Were Five, 68.
“the most sober-minded”: Brough, We Were Five, 136.
“Most of whatever happiness”: Brough, We Were Five, 113.
“And we were already short”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“rare adventure”: Brough, We Were Five, 114.
“never failed to dampen the pleasure”: Brough, We Were Five, 115.
“Petticoat Patrol”: McLeod, “My Neighbors the Quints.”
“I wouldn’t be my sisters for anything”: Brough, “We Were Five,” McCall’s, Octo
ber 1963.
“The old newspapers contain many a story”: Brough, We Were Five, 104.
CHAPTER 31
“It was impossible to enroll the Quintuplets” and “At the start of the school year”: Brough, We Were Five, 122.
“Barbed wire” and “They kept to themselves”: Connie Vachon, interviewed in The Dionne Quintuplets.
“You’re smart enough”: Soucy, 91.
“I remember being very surprised”: Anthony Depalma, “St. Bruno Journal; The Babies of Quintland Now: Broke and Bitter,” New York Times, March 4, 1998.
“It surprised me at first”: Simone Boileau, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“No one was” and “They would ask us questions”: Connie Vachon, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“We hung on every word”: Brough, We Were Five, 123.
“Didn’t it bother you”: Soucy, 97.
“We were happy”: Soucy, 98.
“a kind of bond”: Brough, We Were Five, 135.
“It was a state of affairs”: Brough, We Were Five, 123.
“Morally, those people are taking you farther”: Soucy, 109; see also Brough, We Were Five, 124.
“For the second time, we were bundled off”: Brough, We Were Five, 124.
“learn a new way to live”: Soucy, 113.
“But what the problem was”: Jacqueline Giroux Filion, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“Many times I felt there was a subtle strangeness”: Connie Vachon, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“more relaxed, not as strict” and “How are my little girls?”: Soucy, 73.
“Keep them for yourselves”: Soucy, 74.
“Why didn’t you answer right away,” “I was swallowing my chocolate,” and “You’re still coughing”: Soucy, 78.
“excellent for chest colds,” “I’ll rub you down myself,” and “Are you shy in front of your own father?”: Soucy, 79.
Let it be over quickly! and “Feels good, eh?”: Soucy, 80.
“I’m getting cold” and “Your turn, Émilie”: Soucy, 81.
“Who wants to go with Dad” and “I was afraid for them”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 197.
“He put his finger into my blouse”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 143.
“I always saw when something was coming”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 169.
“It’s over, Émilie”: Soucy, 108.
“We must never leave Em all alone”: Soucy, 108–109.
“going downstairs at night”: Soucy, 72.
“Oh, no,…That was private”: Annette Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“It would have been very difficult”: Yvonne Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“I think I would tell her”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“First of all, I didn’t know where to go”: Annette Dionne, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“And sharp”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“customary calm”: Soucy, 105.
“These sisters, the nuns, lived through hell in there”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 106.
“her father loved her only”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 107.
“They would have been fired”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 106.
“Even if we are not in the confessional”: Soucy, 106.
“We assert that we had good parents” and “a lot of trash”: “Dionne Siblings Say Sex Abuse Claim False,” Toronto Star, September 26, 1995.
“How could it happen”: “Life with Father,” People, October 16, 1995.
“Never”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 227.
“Is this why I was uncomfortable?”: Connie Vachon, interviewed in Full Circle.
CHAPTER 32
“I like Shirley Temple” and “found much satisfaction”: Jack Karr, “The Fabulous Five Are 14,” Toronto Star Weekly, May 22, 1948.
“I don’t remember the girls ever saying”: Connie Vachon, interviewed in Full Circle.
“We had our new names”: Brough, We Were Five, 135.
“In that time,…there was only two choices”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“When Dad told us”: Brough, We Were Five, 138.
“Half pleased, half disappointed”: Brough, We Were Five, 139.
“There was still that finger”: Brough, We Were Five, 141.
“Dad was a great one”: Brough, We Were Five, 142.
“Pat him on the back”: McLeod, “My Neighbors the Quints.”
“I felt free like a bird”: Annette Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“They saved us”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 171.
“The interview had us all trembling” and “You are rich enough”: Brough, We Were Five, 140.
CHAPTER 33
“I have an announcement to make”: Soucy, 160.
Does that mean I might be able: Soucy, 162.
“I have chosen this particular order”: “Marie Dionne Admired Nuns Who Supervised Schooling,” Ottawa Journal, August 24, 1954.
“I am very grateful” and “How do you feel”: Soucy, 166.
“But she’s letting go of us!”: Soucy, 163.
“It will be too emotional for you”: Soucy, 168.
“It was a big shock”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 171.
“Are you taking good care of her?” and Do what you must: Soucy, 169.
“a new serenity”: Soucy, 171.
“the slightest hesitation”: Soucy, 174.
“It was very severe”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“She was too young”: Annette Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“hurt her as if she were cutting into her own flesh” and “superhuman effort”: Soucy, 174.
“It touched the other sisters”: “Mother Superior Thought Marie Dionne ‘Too Delicate,’ ” Ottawa Journal, July 20, 1954.
“As time slipped by”: Brough, We Were Five, 150–151.
“I prefer to remain a child”: Brough, We Were Five, 151.
“robust health”: “Emilie Dionne Considers Joining Secular Convent,” Catholic Advance, July 3, 1954.
“took to it heartily,” “so quiet we could not tell,” and “She wanted to work”: John Belliveau, “Those Five Never Knew Much Real Happiness, Family Member Says,” Toronto Star, August 7, 1954.
“I decided the only intelligent thing”: “Mother Superior Thought Marie Dionne ‘Too Delicate.’ ”
“I was very confused”: Brough, We Were Five, 152.
“appeared dazed and ill”: “Dionne Quintuplet Leaves Convent,” Bristol Daily Courier, July 19, 1954.
“They thought I was stupid”: Brough, We Were Five, 153.
“all kinds of rumors”: “Marie Dionne Quits Convent; Two Explanations Are Given,” Gettysburg Times, July 19, 1954.
“I do not intend to go back home”: Brough, We Were Five, 154.
CHAPTER 34
“Take hold of yourselves”: Brough, We Were Five, 157.
QUINT DIES OF STROKE: Don Delaplante, “Quint Dies of Stroke,” Toronto Globe, August 7, 1954.
“They were all talking and laughing”: “Emilie’s Body Arrives at Callander, ONT,” Lowell Sun, August 8, 1954.
“I looked in on her”: Brough, We Were Five, 157.
“frequent weak spells”: Belliveau, “Those Five Never Knew.”
“We had no idea”: Brough, We Were Five, 158.
“Cécile, you will never feel so bad again”: Soucy, 193; see also Parker, “The Dark Side of the Famous Five.”
“like widows and orphans”: Soucy, 200.
“It was like a nightmare”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“a flame that would never again be revived
”: Soucy, 195.
“Inside, there’s a voice that said”: Tesher, The Dionnes, 124.
“broke the spell”: Soucy, 197.
“Just one, then” and “Émilie is still playing the part”: Soucy, 197.
“persons genuine in their grief”: “Bury Émilie Monday Near Grandparents,” Toronto Star, August 7, 1954.
“The way everyone has been so kind”: Brough, We Were Five, 161.
“She is stronger than I am”: Angela Burke, “Émilie ‘So Good, Gay Had Not Seemed Ill,’ Says Sister Yvonne,” Toronto Star, August 7, 1954.
“It was very dark”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Miracle Babies.
“that they were still part”: Soucy, 200.
“face haggard with grief”: Don Delaplante, “Émilie Goes to Her Last Rest; Long Struggle with Illness Told,” Toronto Globe, August 10, 1954.
“almost in a state of collapse”: John Breil, “Priest Won’t End Rite Until Curious Leave; Many Grab for Roses,” Toronto Star, August 9, 1954.
“bitterly”: C. M. Fellman, “Hundreds Watch as Émilie Dionne Buried,” Lethbridge Herald, August 9, 1954.
“senseless” and “to keep Émilie alive within her soul”: Soucy, 200.
“We are not lowering the body” and “Have you no respect”: Breil, “Priest Won’t End Rite.”
“All gone. And the grass”: Leo Voyer, interviewed in The Dionne Quintuplets.
CHAPTER 35
The cage is open: Soucy, 203.
“I remember feeling”: Parker, “The Dark Side of the Famous Five.”
If only being a quint was a secret: Soucy, 188.
“I knew it was better like that”: Cécile Dionne, interviewed in Full Circle.
“I like everything about nursing”: “Boys? Million Dollars? Dionnes Shrug Shoulders,” Lansing State Journal, May 5, 1955.
“a touch of lipstick”: Brough, We Were Five, 165.
“An inexplicable weariness”: Soucy, 208.
“I think she wants to be friendly”: “Boys? Million Dollars?”