1951 - Parents' Love Transcends All Else in a Child's Life

Published by Daily News, New York, New York, May 06, 1951.

Photo accompanied article, captioned, "Although the Dionne quintuplets have all kinds of pets, from kittens to horses, a favorite is Bambi, a deer they found near their home when he was 2 months old."

BY DORIS BLAKE

A talk with a certain woman author of a fascinating story about the world's most famous family confirms our theory, and more--that of every student of child psychology--that the greatest tragedy that can happen to a child is to believe that he or she is unloved.

So grievous is the wrong done that our experts on the problem of delinquency charge this feeling of being unloved, unwanted, as one of the major contributions in the shaping of a delinquent.

A child's need of the assurance that he or she is loved and wanted equals, if not exceeds, its need for food and nourishment. Indeed, children have been known to pine away for lack of this greatest of all nourishment--love. Showers of gifts, of gold, of fame are as nothing to a young one compared to the loving pat, the endearing kiss from loving parents.

The woman author referred to is Lillian Barker and her story is "The Dionne Legend" or "Quintuplets in Captivity" (Doubleday, $3), and is about the Dionne quintuplets and their famous family.

Miss Barker has the unique distinction of being close to the whole Dionne family, the quins' parents, et al., for almost the entire length of the famed girls' lives. On May 28 they'll celebrate their 17th birthday.

Fame Brought Tragedy

In this case the tragedy was not the little girls' alone but that of their adoring parents likewise, all on account of the worldwide fame wrought by the miracle of the quintuplet birth.

Worth a million dollars today and now no longer victims of enforced separation from their parents, the children's feeling, as interpreted by Miss Barker, "is that with all the money, fame and gifts, the five little girls never can recapture the childhood years," or, as the author expresses it, "The most priceless thing of all was denied them because they became showpieces, tourist attractions, victims of feuding between government-appointed guardians and their parents."

Through the amazing birth of five tiny babies at one time, the Dionne quintuplets lost during those precious young years the right of "belonging" to their flesh and blood parents, their brothers and sisters.

We are not arguing the point of the right or wrong of it under the unusual circumstances of the quintuple birth. We merely want to emphasize our point that nothing can possibly take the place of mother love. Or, as one sagely put it, the tragedy of the denial of the greatest vitamins A, B, C down to Z of close family ties.

Even when small the little ones used to petition their pastor to pray to the Bon Dieu to give them back to their parents. Not alone mother love did they crave, but their Papa loomed large and lovingly in their lives as a bright association. With tears rolling down their cheeks, Lillian Barker reports, the little ones begged to be allowed to go to church with Mama and Papa as their brothers and sisters did.

Not until they were all united under one roof did the quins acclaim themselves to be the luckiest children in the world. That's when they felt for the first time they belonged. "We used to think," the famous children said, "that Papa and Mama loved our brothers and sisters more than they loved us, because the others lived with them."

Heartaches and Triumphs

But don't get the idea that the Dionne legend is a tale of utter bereavement. There were heartaches, true, but there were joys and triumphs and most touching little incidents, as when the girls, to be presented to the visiting King and Queen of England, whose wards they were, went armed with a letter petitioning their restoration to their parents' care, but in the confusion the letter failed to reach Their Majesties.

Now the famous sisters are firmly entrenched in the home and hearts of their family. Exhibiting individual talents and ambitions, betimes loving the domestic duties to which they are willingly assigned. And for the most exploited children in the world, by some magic formula, they are today leading as normal, healthy lives as could possibly be attained by such unique celebrities.