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We Were Fiveby James Brough |
These days idiots are using drugs to cause multiple births, but in 1934 quintuplets were big news. And big money. In 1997, the three surviving quints emerged from their guarded privacy to deliver a message to the McCaugheys (parents of quints born in 1997). Here's how they summed up their childhood for the McCaugheys:
"We hope your children receive more respect than we did. Their fate should be no different from that of other children. Multiple births should not be confused with entertainment, nor should they be an opportunity to sell products. Our lives have been ruined by the exploitation we suffered at the hands of the government of Ontario, our place of birth. We were displayed as a curiosity three times a day for millions of tourists."Unfortunately, We Were Five, though written with the cooperation of the quints, is not as starkly honest as the letter to the McCaugheys. The book was written in the early 60s. If it were written today, it would be a very different book, I'll bet. What happened to the Dionne Quints was a shame. A damned shame. (Also a shame is what happened to the Parker Quintuplets, who suddenly vanished from the web one day, along with Emi Guner, their close confidant. But that's another story.) |
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