A Family Miracle
For years, all Janet and Graham Walton had wanted was a family of their own. They’d been trying to have children for a long time, but it was to no avail. Due to their difficulties conceiving, doctors recommended IVF, and the couple gave it a go, hoping it would be the answer to their prayers. However, the first time didn’t work, and neither did the second. After a further ten failed attempts at IVF, the Waltons were close to giving up.
Thankfully, they didn’t, and on their thirteenth attempt, they got the news they’d been wanting to hear for years: Janet was pregnant! The couple were over the moon, but they were soon in for a shock.
More Than Expected
Following the successful embryo implantation, Janet and Graham were eager to find out more about the pregnancy. However, they got more than they expected when the doctor informed them that it wasn’t a single baby, nor twins. Janet had become pregnant with sextuplets! The couple had gone from struggling to conceive one baby to expecting six! It was a lot to take in, but they weren’t unhappy. After all, their wishes had finally come true.
To ensure that Janet had a safe and healthy pregnancy, she was soon admitted to a hospital where doctors could monitor the babies and their development. It was a good and necessary choice.
The Big Day
Though they had almost eight months to prepare for the birth of their six babies, it was still a huge change for the couple when the time finally came. At 31 weeks pregnant, Janet went into labor, and all six children were delivered via c-section. This was the safest option for everybody involved, and thankfully, it all went well. It was a big day for the Waltons and the world! The first all-female surviving sextuplets had been born.
The newborn girls were named Hannah Jane, Luci Anne, Ruth Michelle, Sarah Louise, Kate Elizabeth, and Jennifer Rose. Janet and Graham were absolutely overjoyed with their new little miracles.
Time Flew By
Anybody can imagine how difficult it would be to care for six newborn babies. Time flew by for the Watson family as they navigated this massive new responsibility. In just one year, they’d used over 10,000 diapers! There were also plenty of sleepless nights and endless feedings as the couple worked to ensure that all six girls were properly cared for. Throughout those early years, their lives were completely devoted to their children.
Despite the challenges, the Watsons wouldn’t have changed a thing. They finally had the family they’d always dreamed of, and every sacrifice and sleepless night was worth it to watch them grow up.
Living Life to the Full
The world wasn’t exactly designed for a family to have six children all the same age, but the Waltons never let that stop them. They would take their babies out in two double strollers and two papooses, giving each girl a place to sit and rest. The family loved going out together and really living life to the full, and they never let their high number restrict them. As a result, the girls grew up very close to each other.
They all attended the same school, where their diligent parents spent plenty of time getting to know the teachers of all six girls. As they grew up, the girls could see how much their parents cared.
An Incredible Experience
People everywhere were fascinated by the Waltons. Even before the girls were born, Janet would hear people whispering about her sextuplets in the hospital while she was waiting to give birth. Raising them was challenging at times, but it was an incredible experience that both parents cherished. Janet has jokingly described the teenage years as “loud music and untidy bedrooms”, with her children going through the same stages as any others, just all at the same time!
The family became very well-known in their home city, Liverpool, as well as nationally and even internationally. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event for many people, especially the Waltons!
All Grown Up
Before Janet and Graham knew it, their six girls were all grown up. Now young women, each of the sextuplets pursued her own path, completely different from those of her sisters. Hannah is now a teacher, Luci is an airline stewardess, Ruth is a receptionist, Sarah is a medical center worker, Kate is an HR worker, and Jennifer is the owner of a sweet shop. But their differences have not separated them.
Even with their individual lives, the sextuplets remain close. When Ruth, the first of the six to marry, wed her husband, Rob, in 2015, she had her five proud sisters as her bridesmaids. They clearly share a special bond like no other.
Looking Back Fondly
Even with their children now 41 years old, Janet and Graham are still the subject of much fascination. Over the years, plenty of documentaries and photo ops have been held to celebrate the monumental birth of the first all-girl sextuplets. But Janet and Graham remain a very normal couple. They look back fondly on their girls’ childhoods, seeing now that all their hard work raising six children has certainly paid off.
The sextuplets themselves have also expressed awe and gratitude when speaking about their parents. They were blessed with two incredible parents who doted on them and brought them up in a normal family environment.
Becoming Grandparents
Janet and Graham created one amazing generation of Waltons, but that isn’t the end for the family! In late 2014, Sarah gave birth to her first child, a girl named Jorgie Louise. Both of her parents were delighted to become grandparents, with Janet describing the experience as “wonderful”. When the sextuplets were first born, Janet and Graham received lots of support from their own parents, so they were keen to pay that love and support forward.
It feels poetic that the parents of the first set of sextuplets, which consisted entirely of daughters, became first-time grandparents to a granddaughter. It was an exciting new era for the whole family.
The Dionne Quintuplets
Though the Waltons were incredible, they weren’t the first monumental case of their kind. The Dionne quintuplets were another famous set of all-female multiple births, but their story played out very differently from that of the Walton sextuplets. Back in 1934, a young woman named Elzire Dionne went into labor, assuming that she was having twins. However, those first two babies were swiftly followed by another three! Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie were the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
Both the mother, the doctor, and the midwives were stunned. Five babies in one pregnancy, and all identical! But there was another shock to come: a sixth baby who was never born.
A High-Risk Situation
Though she hadn’t known it, Elzire’s pregnancy had been high-risk from the moment of conception. Against all odds, she and her husband, Oliva, had naturally conceived multiple babies. Around the end of her third trimester, Elzire experienced some worrying abdominal cramping and passed an object that is now believed to have been a sixth fetus. As the quintuplets were all identical girls, it most likely would have been a sixth sister, and the situation would have been even more dangerous.
The babies only weighed a collective 13 pounds and six ounces, and the heaviest alone was barely over 3 pounds! Elzire went into shock when she first saw them tucked into the corner of her bed.
An Unprecedented Event
At the time, nobody had thought that quintuplets were a possibility. They’d been born before, but always with issues, and until the Dionne sisters, none had survived past infancy. That’s why this birth was so unprecedented. The doctor who delivered the babies, Dr Dafoe, was amazed and quickly spread the news to everyone he knew. Soon enough, all the locals, including people who worked at the store and post office, had heard about the quintuplets.
Oliva’s brother had even told a local newspaper about it, enquiring as to how much the editor would charge for the announcement. Before they were even a day old, the Dionne quintuplets were becoming famous.
The Exclusive
Six hours after their birth, the Dionne quintuplets had their first photograph taken. Thanks to the rampant gossiping, a reporter had gotten wind of their existence and was eager to get the exclusive. Along with a photographer, he showed up at the family’s house and asked to photograph the babies for the official announcement. Elzire was exhausted, and her severely underweight babies were wrapped in blankets in a wicker basket to keep them warm and comfortable.
However, the sleeping babies were taken from their cocoons and laid on the bed beside their mother for the photograph. In their very fragile state, this was a risky move that could have had dangerous consequences.
A Worrying Beginning
With quintuplets already a high risk and the Dionne daughters being so small, many people doubted their survival. They had to be kept warm with blankets and hot water bottles, massaged with olive oil and fed a mixture of water and corn syrup to encourage them to grow. Somebody had to watch them at all times. After hearing about their situation, many people rallied to help the Dionne family, sending supplies, including breastmilk, and advice.
Incubation was difficult because the Dionne home did not have electricity, but a reporter managed to find a late nineteenth-century incubator that needed no electricity to run and sent it to the family.
No Peace
Despite all this much-appreciated assistance, the constant attention was a lot for the family. Once the babies were out of the woods, thousands of strangers flocked to the Dionne house, hoping to see them. Reporters and photographers had a field day with such a monumental event. There was no peace for the parents, nor the five tiny babies who had only recently had a slim chance of survival. They were treated like an exhibition to gawk at.
At the time, the babies were none the wiser as to what was going on. However, it was actually just the start of a long and turbulent journey for them, whether they wanted to go on it or not.
Endless Expenses
Babies are not cheap now, and they weren’t much cheaper back in 1934, either! As if welcoming five babies at once wasn’t enough, the Dionnes already had five older children: two sons and three daughters. Their family of seven had become a family of twelve, and they’d soon welcome another three sons after the quintuplets, too. How could anybody possibly afford all those children? Even worse, the Great Depression was in full swing, making everything even more expensive.
Oliva and Elzire had to decide whether they wanted to ensure their family’s survival. Unfortunately, it came at great cost to the quintuplets.
A Business Venture
At the time, Oliva was a gravel hauler, so he didn’t make much money. But he’d seen how much media attention the quintuplets had attracted when they were born and theorized that they could be used to create further income. Exhibitors working for the Chicago World’s Fair told him that the babies could be put on display as part of the exhibition. At the time, “incubator babies” were often displayed if there was something unique about them.
Oliva thought over the offer for some time. On one hand, it would bring the family some much-needed money; on the other, it meant relinquishing his very young babies to an exhibition.
A Deal With the Devil
In order to make his decision, Oliva sought out the counsel of two people whom he should have been able to trust: Dr Dafoe, who had delivered the quintuplets, and the family’s priest, Father Daniel Routhier. Dr Dafoe had no reservations and told Oliva that he should do it. This was unsurprising as the doctor had been the first one to spread the news of the birth and trigger the subsequent media frenzy.
Father Daniel Routhier was also very encouraging, but he had an ulterior motive. He wanted to make some money himself by acting as a manager for the babies during their time at the Chicago World’s Fair.
A Mother’s Fury
Despite seeking advice from the doctor and priest, Oliva neglected to mention the offer to his wife until after he had signed his consent. Naturally, Elzire was furious. She had not been involved in making this decision, and if she had, she certainly would have refused the offer. After seeing his wife’s reaction, Oliva seemed to come to his senses and attempted to break the contract, stating that it didn’t hold without his wife’s signature.
Unfortunately, the Tour Bureau informed him that the contract was indeed binding, so the couple had no choice but to acquiesce. And this was only the beginning.
The Babies Paid the Price
Not only were the quintuplets now technically owned by the Chicago World’s Fair, but their health was starting to fail. They were losing weight and needed urgent medical attention from Dr Dafoe. Though they did recover, they were soon given over to the exhibition. Elzire and Oliva signed over custody to the Red Cross for two years, providing the babies with guardians who would also cover their medical costs. This should have shielded them.
At the time, the quintuplets weren’t even three months old, yet they were set to become the next big public spectacle. They didn’t know what their parents had signed them up for.
Their Parents Ended up Loving the Limelight
The Dionnes may have had their reservations at first, but once their babies became even more famous, it all went to their heads. All of a sudden, they’d changed their minds about protecting the quintuplets’ privacy. While the babies toured with the Chicago World’s Fair, their parents also pursued the limelight and traveled out to join them in Chicago. They marketed themselves as the parents of the most famous babies in the world.
What the Dionnes didn’t know was that they were playing right into the hands of the wrong people. The situation would soon spiral out of control, and it was the children who would take the fall.
New Guardianship
By this time, the quintuplets were very famous, and there were plenty of people who wanted to make money off of them. Elzire and Oliva’s own pursuit of fame gave Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn the opening he needed to extend state guardianship of the babies. Instead of the agreed upon two years with the Red Cross, the babies would now be official wards of the Crown until they were legal adults.
In a shocking turn of events, Premier Hepburn changed the law for the children. He created the Dionne Quintuplets Act, which was supposed to protect the girls but instead exploited them further.
They Had Four Official Guardians - And They Were All Taking Advantage
The quintuplets had four official guardians: Oliva, Dr Dafoe, David Kroll, the Minister of Welfare, and Joseph Valin, an appointed judge. They had full control over the girls, their business ventures, and any money made as a result of their appearances. Though Oliva had been invited to be a part of this process, he rarely attended Board of Guardians meetings because he assumed the other more powerful men would overrule him.
As a result, the quintuplets were in a prime position to be taken advantage of. They were five small children being used to make money without any profit for themselves.
They Essentially Became a Human Zoo Exhibit
The quintuplets had been exhibited as part of the Chicago World’s Fair, but things were soon taken to a whole new level. Across the road from their former home, the girls were moved into the Dafoe Nursery, which was essentially a “baby zoo”. They lived inside but were constantly sent outside to play in the public observation area. People would crowd around and watch them like they were a spectacle. Behind one-way glass, the girls didn’t have a clue.
The baby zoo was grotesque, but the guardians got away with it because they didn’t charge visitors money to look at the children. However, they had the girls right where they wanted them for future profit.
A Prison in Disguise
Though it was called a nursery, the baby zoo was actually a prison in disguise. The girls were surrounded by staff who watched them at all times, including three police officers who guarded them. They had effectively been separated from their parents since they were babies, and they lacked the close connection that children need, like the Walton sextuplets had with their parents. Instead, the Dionne quintuplets were brought up by nurses and a housekeeper.
The building had nine rooms where the quintuplets could roam, but they were constantly being watched. The compound was even surrounded by a seven-foot barbed wire fence, emphasizing their imprisonment.
Test Subjects
This dystopian existence was deemed necessary for the quintuplets. After all, they were a one-in-a-million investment for their guardians, who saw the opportunity to make lots of money. They were isolated from the outside world and constantly examined like test subjects to further their knowledge of quintuplets. Though their parents and eight siblings lived mere feet away, the girls barely saw them. When they did, their mother argued with the nurses on how best to care for them.
It was a sad reality for the young children who spent more time with spectators than their own family. They grew up in a bubble and were treated like a circus act, unknowingly performing for an audience.
A Robotic Routine
The girls should have been able to enjoy their childhoods like any other children, but that was never going to happen. They had a robotic routine that was the same thing every day. They woke up, used the same bathroom, drank orange juice, got dressed up, and had their hair curled. They had 30 minutes for breakfast, 30 minutes to play, and then a medical inspection with Dr Dafoe. They also said prayers and had timetabled activities.
Everything was strictly regimented. The girls went along with this routine because it was all they’d ever known. To them, it was the most normal thing in the world.
Picture-Perfect Children
People were fascinated by the idea of quintuplets, but the girls still needed to live up to expectations. Simply displaying them wasn’t enough; they needed to look the part. Each girl was assigned a color and a symbol to distinguish them from each other while also presenting them as a set. Emilie wore white and a tulip symbol, Annette red and a maple leaf, Yvonne pink and a bluebird, Cecile green and a turkey, and Marie blue and a teddy.
They looked like a set of children straight out of a television show. Each day, they wore the same clothes and did the same things, with picture-perfect smiles on their faces.
Making His Fortune
The nursery was named after Dr Dafoe, and he was undoubtedly the mastermind behind the plot to use the quintuplets to garner fame and fortune. He oversaw every aspect of their lives and became very involved with the girls. He’d spent his career as a country doctor but saw an opportunity to advance his position. Soon enough, he was a world-famous doctor, selling books and pamphlets and doing radio broadcasts. Mothers everywhere bought into his advice.
Delivering the Dionne quintuplets had been a goldmine for Dr Dafoe. In 1943 alone, he made $182,466 off of them, which is equivalent to over $3 million today.
Seen But Not Heard
Before long, Dafoe’s “Quintland” had become the most visited tourist attraction in Canada. People came from all over to catch a glimpse of the quintuplets, and many also wanted to interact with them. However, this was stressful for the girls because they were excited by seeing new people but would quickly become overstimulated and get upset when people left. To remedy this, interaction was banned, so people looked at the girls but didn’t speak to them.
However, the girls only became more upset. They could sense that they were being watched but had no way to communicate with them. It was like living under a dome.
Constant Cash Grabs
People treated the quintuplets like a type of freakshow to come and gawk at, and this only presented further opportunities for profit. Merchandise and souvenirs were produced featuring images or depictions of the children. But it wasn’t Dr Dafoe who sold these items; it was the girls’ own father. Oliva ran a souvenir shop opposite the nursery, creating a mini Quintland empire. Visitors had ample parking, could walk through and see the children, then buy souvenirs afterward.
It was utterly dystopian, but nobody saw anything wrong with it. Some of the souvenirs even contained autographs, and there were also dolls made to look like the girls. The public ate it up.
The Magic of Quints
As if treating the quints like animals in a zoo wasn’t bad enough, some people believed they were the product of magical fertility. To capitalize on this, Quintland provided bins brimming with free stones for visitors to take, which they claimed were blessed with the power of fertility. Childless women also gravitated towards Elzire and Oliva, hoping that their evident fertility would rub off on them. All of a sudden, the entire family was involved in this circus.
If Oliva had had doubts about signing over custody of his children at first, he seemed more than content once he’d discovered how much money could be made. The girls had become a bank.
Nine Blissful Years on the Compound
It may seem utterly dystopian to look back on now, but, at the time, the quintuplets were seemingly quite happy growing up in the nursery. Though they lacked the parental nurturing that all children need, the quints knew no different, so they didn’t find the nursery strange. Sometimes, they were unsettled by all the visitors, but they grew used to living as they did. Dr Dafoe’s hold over them was strong, but it wouldn’t last forever.
The devious doctor’s luck would soon run out, and that should have been a good thing for the Dionne quintuplets. However, it was actually the start of a new terrible chapter in their lives.
An Unhappy Reunion
It was determined that Dr Dafoe was pushing things too far and using the girls to further his own fame, so he was officially removed from the Board of Guardians. Despite his absences from the meetings, Oliva was actively involved in this decision, and he was pleased by Dafoe’s downfall. Together with his wife, he fought to regain custody of the quints, and he had plenty of support, putting pressure on the government to give it to him.
In 1943, the Dionnes were successful, and the entire family was set to move into a new house. However, it was not the happy reunion that it should have been after nine years apart.
Their Parents Used the Money to Buy a Big House - And Saved None for the Girls
The new Dionne family home was a far cry from the small house with no electricity that the girls had been born into. It was absolutely beautiful, with more than enough space for the family of twelve. But even though he’d profited off of the quintuplets himself, Oliva was in no position to afford a 20-room mansion that included luxuries like electricity and hot water. Instead of putting the money aside for the girls’ future, their parents took it.
The Dionnes funded a new lifestyle for themselves off of the backs of their quints. The least they could have done was treat the girls like the children they were, but they just saw them as cash cows.
Alienation
The quints had spent practically the entire first nine years of their lives isolated in a nursery with very limited familial contact, but they’d never felt as alienated as they did when they moved back home. Straightaway, they could tell that they weren’t being treated the same as their siblings. It was almost like they were strangers, and for their parents, they couldn’t do anything right. They were constantly lectured, gaslighted, and made to feel unwelcome.
Their father, in particular, resented the girls because he thought that losing custody of them had made him look bad to the general public. This wasn’t their fault, but they were made to feel responsible.
No Motherly Affection
The girls should have been able to turn to their mother for comfort, but Elzire’s behavior was often as bad as Oliva’s. She often took her frustrations out on the quintuplets while praising and lavishing affection on their siblings. They had needed their mother’s love for years but continued to be starved of it. Their time in the “Big House” was just as isolating as all those years in the Dafoe Nursery. On occasion, Elzire even injured the girls.
Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie and Marie only had each other to turn to. They were the only constant and comforting presences in each other’s lives, and they clung fiercely to their bond.
Frightened of Their Father
Later in their lives, the Dionne quintuplets relaid several accounts of physical harm at the hands of their mother, but they were also frightened of their father. Dafoe had seemingly been pulling all the strings before, but Oliva had firmly taken over his role as the mastermind of this exploitative money-making scheme. The girls were terrified to displease their father. They felt uncomfortable around him and dreaded being alone with him.
In front of the cameras, Oliva was a model father, but he was a monster behind closed doors. The girls had been taken from their nursery prison into a prison of a different kind.
Plotting Their Escape
As the girls approached adulthood and the legal end of their guardianship, they began plotting their escape. Each of them wanted to get as far away from the Big House as possible and never come back. They’d known nothing but isolation their entire lives, and a life without any family in it seemed preferable. In 1952, the quintuplets turned eighteen and took their chance to escape. They’d been puppets their whole lives; now they could taste freedom.
Each quint had her own path in mind. Marie and Emilie were both set on becoming nuns, for example. Sadly, this wasn’t the end of the Dionne quintuplets’ pain.
Their Lives Were Forever Changed
Emilie had epilepsy, but her family had always kept it a secret due to public stigma. Sadly, this soon came at the cost of her life. Emilie knew that her condition was bad, so she always surrounded herself with other nuns. However, one day she was left alone and had a seizure that caused her to fall down and suffocate. At just 20 years old, her life was snuffed out, and the grief was agonizing for her sisters.
No matter what happened, the quintuplets had always relied on each other. Like the Walton sextuplets, they had a special bond. Though they’d lost Emilie, they always remembered and honored her as their treasured sister.