On May 28th, 1934, in a small farmhouse on the town line in Corbeil, Ontario, Elzire Dionne gave birth. This was not her first child. Despite being only 25 years old, this was her 7th pregnancy. She got married at the age of 16 to 21 year old Oliva Dionne, one of the most eligible bachelors in the area. Less than a year later in 1926, she delivered her first baby in the middle of a snowstorm, a baby boy she named Ernest. Then came two baby girls, Rose Marie in 1928, Thérèse in 1929, and eventually Léo in 1930. Sadly, Léo caught pneumonia as an infant and died before he turned 2 months old. Elzire never fully recovered from this loss. Nevertheless, her deep religious views urged her to have more children. In 1932, she welcomed another baby boy, Daniel. Pauline came in 1933 and only 11 months later, Elzire went into premature labor with yet another baby.

     It was her hardest pregnancy, but she still refused to take bed rest. It was the middle of the Great Depression and much like the rest of the world, the Dionne's were just barely getting by. There was no way she could slow down, no matter how much her doctor advised her to. The morning of May 28th brought five more tiny mouths to feed into the Dionne Family. One after the other with the help of two midwives, Yvonne, then Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie Dionne made their way into the world. It was an incredible shock.

     Once the physician arrived, Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, he announced that there was no chance they would survive, as no other set of five had.  While he was busy making sure their mother survived, the babies didn't show any signs of slowing down. They were determined to live. Dr. Dafoe realized this and soon hired an entire entourage of nurses, doctors, housekeepers, photographers and more to keep up with these tiny miracles. Days and weeks went by and the babies only got healthier. Everyone was expecting the other shoe to drop. It never did. That doesn't mean there weren't difficulties though.

     Soon, the tiny farmhouse-turned-nursery that Elzire gave birth to and raised each of her children became far too small. The goal was to find a place where the babies could live in a completely sterile environment. The group of adults looking after them decided on building a hospital-like environment specifically built for quintuplets, known as the Dafoe Hospital and Nursery, named after the doctor who managed the upkeep of the five girls. And at 4 months old, Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie were carried just across the street to their new home. The only thing this new home didn't take into account was the rest of the family. Thus began the split right through the middle of the Dionne household.

     With the birth of the first surviving quintuplets, people flocked to see the miracle babies. To keep up with these growing children, the group of guardians (as they were now called) devised a plan to build a playground accessible to public viewing so the girls could play and let the world see them. Though it was free to see them, it didn't mean they weren't being profited off of. Everything from dolls to paper fans to silver spoons had the faces of the Dionne Quintuplets on them. They quickly became the most famous children in the world, outselling child stars like Shirley Temple. Even right outside the compound, now called Quintland, shops popped up selling "quint merchandise", hotels expanded to keep up with the hundreds of daily visitors, and even Hollywood stars came up to Ontario to see what the fuss was about. The Quintuplets advertised for brands like Colgate, Baby Ruth Candy Bars, Karo Syrup, Quaker Oats and so many more. Soon, 20th Century Fox approached them with a movie deal and they created three movies, The Country Doctor (1936), Reunion (1936) and Five of a Kind (1938). These five, ordinary seeming young girls, brought what was missing most from the world then, money and happiness. But were they getting that in return?

     Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie had virtually no contact with the outside world and rarely even saw their parents and siblings, let alone extended family and children their own age. Without custody of or full contact with their own children, Oliva and Elzire felt completely useless. They were determined to have their children back. While throughout the years, the government was the one who truly had custody over the girls, Dr. Dafoe, the doctor who claimed to have delivered them, publicly claimed custody. The public regarded him as the quintuplets' savior and surrogate father, when in reality, he arrived after the babies were born and never lived with them or even looked after them. His only role in their life was as a physician and a man with whom they were often photographed with, but never as a constant figure. They were actually raised mainly by the ever changing team of nurses, hired and fired at the suggestion of Dr. Dafoe. The public was unaware that the nurses provided the Quintuplets' only motherly love they ever knew. Which is ever more sad when you realize that the nurses were fired if they were perceived to be "too closely bonded" to the five little girls. Meanwhile, Oliva and Elzire were not only not allowed to see their own children, they were also publicly ostracized from a relationship with their children.

     After years of lawsuits and fighting, Dr. Dafoe surrendered and eventually passed away in 1943. By November of that year, the Quintuplets moved back in with their family that they didn't know the slightest thing about. Because their parents now had two more children, Oliva Jr. in 1936 and Victor in 1938, the farmhouse that they were born in was clearly out of the question. A new, 20-room mansion was built and ironically nicknamed 'The Big House'. All 14 Dionnes were finally under one roof, and after moving in, the Dionne's grew by one more when Claude was born in 1946. After 9 years apart, the Quintuplets barely knew their parents and siblings. With nothing in common and resentment hanging above everyone's heads, the atmosphere became more and more strained as the years went by. The Quintuplets report fighting, abuse and depression.

     Their only refuge was school. They were privately educated by nuns in the old Dafoe Hospital and Nursery, now called Villa Notre Dame. They were finally allowed 10 friends their age who were chosen to attend school with them. These girls would provide some of the only true friendship Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie ever knew. This was their happy place, but going home every night constantly reminded them that this was not permanent.

     Émilie, the once always happy and playful sister, started having seizures, something her family referred to as "the grand mal". Émilie's mental health quickly declined and she lost her once carefree personality. This was a well-kept secret within the family, as in the 1940's, epilepsy was thought to be brought on by the devil. It continued to be hidden after the Quintuplets graduated high school in 1952 and when they started their equivalent to college at a place they called  the "Family Institute".

     After a year at the Institute, Marie decided she wanted to join a convent. In 1953, she took an oath and became incredibly secluded in her life as a nun. Months later, Émilie herself felt inspired by her sister and joined her own convent. Yvonne began attending art school and Annette and Cécile continued at the Institute. Just as they were all finding their own ways in the world, the sisters received news that Émilie suffered yet another seizure, but she had been left alone, causing her to roll over and suffocate. She passed away at only 20 years old.

     Yvonne, Annette, Cécile and Marie were beyond distraught. They were convinced up until this point that Quintuplets could not survive after one of them passed away. This not only proved this theory wrong, but it was a loss of 1/5 of themselves. They felt completely empty, and it's something none of them truly recovered from. Marie, more than her other three sisters, felt betrayed by God. Shortly before Émilie died, she was forced to leave her convent. The other nuns at her convent decided that Marie was too mentally and physically unstable to devote herself entirely to God. The death of the sister she was closest to, absolutely destroyed her.

     Despite still not recovering from or forgiving her family for their strained relationship, she decided to move back home to the Big House. By this point, Yvonne, Annette and Cécile were living in Montreal, Quebec trying to move on with their lives. It seems Marie couldn't move on without Émilie. She became even more depressed living at home and it came time for her surviving sisters to form an intervention and force their sister to save herself. They convinced her to join her convent for a second time, so that she could fulfill her biggest goal: to become a nun. Soon, Marie was back where she was prior to Émilie's death and trying to move on.

     Meanwhile, Yvonne had stopped going to art school and decided to attend nursing school instead. Cécile followed Yvonne and the two sisters attended the same nursing school where they began to make friends. Annette, always the most musical Quintuplet, was pursuing her goal in going to school for music. One day in 1956, when Annette was attending school, she received a letter. Marie was in the hospital and needed to return home. She was too ill to be in her convent any longer and would no longer be welcome to return. Annette rushed to Marie's bedside and had to break the news to her sister that her dreams of being a nun were no longer a possibility.

     Marie was absolutely heartbroken all over again. Annette refused to let her sister return to their home in Corbeil so she took it upon herself to buy an apartment close to Yvonne and Cécile's nursing school that she and Marie could live in. The apartment, rented under a fake name, became a happy place for the four sisters. It was the first home they lived in that truly felt like home. It was theirs and only theirs.

     All of the sisters were content and some of them even found love. Cécile began dating a radio technician, Philippe Langlois. She was so happy with this type of love that she had never experienced and was determined to find love for her sisters. Her surviving sisters though, were still scared to allow themselves to be loved, especially romantically. But, Cécile eventually got Annette to go on a date with one of their old classmate's brothers, Germain Allard. Annette was very nervous, but was charmed by Germain and they soon began dating. The two sisters and their boyfriends hung out quite often, and Germain and Philippe became part of the Quintuplets very closed circle.

     Marie and her sister's boyfriend Philippe began a friendship over their shared love of flowers. They convinced Yvonne, Annette, Cécile and Germain to help them start a flower business. Though Marie and Philippe were the main business owners, the business began to be associated with all of the sisters. The business was named La Salon Émilie, after their late sister. La Salon Émilie opened on Mother's Day in 1956 but because of Marie's generous nature, it quickly failed. She gave away more flowers than she sold, and while the business went under, Marie remained grateful for the experience. After the store closed, Marie went on to work at other flower shops in the Montreal area. Her other surviving sisters also worked various jobs, usually under an alias to prevent getting public attention as a Dionne Quintuplet.

     However, Annette and Cécile had little time to work before getting married. Annette married Germain, her first and only boyfriend, on October 11th, 1957. Cécile gave up her nursing career when she also married her first and only boyfriend a little over a month later, on November 23rd, 1957. Marie was definitely not looking for love when she went on a date with Florian Houle, a man she met at church. She was also using an alias at this church, so Florian didn't know her real name until they officially started dating. He was actually a fan of the Dionne Quintuplets before their relationship and was shocked at her real identity. The couple got married on August 13th, 1958 in such a small ceremony that her own family wasn't invited. Marie was determined that her wedding would not be a spectacle and this was the only way to ensure that.

     Soon, each of the married Quintuplets started families. Annette and her husband had three boys, Jean-François, Charles and Eric. She raised her children in a small suburb outside of Montreal. Cécile had five children, Claude, Patrice, twins Bruno and Bertrand and their only daughter, Elisabeth. She raised her children in Northern Quebec. Marie had the hardest time conceiving children, and after having two miscarriages, had two daughters, Émilie and Monique. She raised her children in the city of Montreal. As a result of their troubled pasts, each of the sisters' relationships failed. Cécile divorced her husband after six years of marriage, Marie separated but never legally divorced from her husband after six years of marriage as well and Annette divorced her husband after sixteen years of marriage. As far as the public knows, none of the sisters have been in relationships since. Yvonne, on the other hand, never married and never had children. She instead devoted her life to her sisters and pursuing her various dreams of being an artist, a nun, a librarian and she also travelled the most out of the sisters.

     In 1965, the sisters broke their silence for the first time in writing a book, We Were Five, in which they co-wrote with author James Brough. They held back with many harsh realities in their story, but it still was a complete shock to the world. No one was quite as shocked as the rest of the Dionne family. Oliva, Elzire and their siblings felt betrayed. It was the first time they and the rest of the public knew how used Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie felt. Even though it caused such a ripple within the family, the surviving Quintuplets felt more relieved than anything.

     Shortly after the release of the book, yet another tragedy struck. On February 27th, 1970, when Annette didn't hear from Marie for a couple of days, she had her husband pay a visit to her sister's apartment. What he found was shocking. Marie was found dead at the age of 35. The autopsy revealed that she had died on February 24th, but wasn't found for 3 days. Because of how long it took to find her, a cause of death has never been officially determined.She had left behind 9 and 7 year old daughters. Her funeral was the last time Oliva and Elzire were together with their surviving Quintuplets. Oliva died in 1979 and Elzire in 1986.

     While the surviving quintuplets, Yvonne, Annette and Cécile, tried to move on with their lives for a second time after losing a sister, each was having their own personal struggles. Yvonne was on a life-long search to find her purpose in life. She was trying to find a career that she truly loved. For her, working at a library and otherwise living an incredibly secluded life was the thing that stuck the most. Annette's marriage continued to fail for years, until it finally ended a couple of years after Marie's death. She was left to co-parent her 3 boys. Cécile's adult life was filled with tragedy and trauma, just as her childhood was. One of her twin sons, Bruno, passed away as an infant from what some believe was cancer, although Cécile never publicly disclosed this information. After that, despite welcoming another baby, her marriage crumbled. Her husband was a serial cheater and she would often find him in bed with men. After their divorce, her husband did not see their children anymore leaving her a single mother raising four children. Due to the financial strain, she was forced to temporarily place them in separate foster homes.

     Years went by while the sisters kept private. After years of exploitation, they were taking their lives back. But, something in them knew that the public needed to know the truth about their stories. Throughout the 1990's, the three sisters went on a public campaign to achieve this. They released documentaries such as Miracle Babies which premiered on BBC, as well as approved a TV mini series, called Million Dollar Babies, which focused on the early years of their lives released in 1994. They also submitted to countless interviews discussing the contents of the most shocking information they released, in a book called Family Secrets. This book was released with author Jean Yves Soucy and, while we will never know the true events of what happened in the Big House during the years of 1943 to 1956, it dives into what the Dionne Sisters vividly remember about what they call "the worst years of their lives". It exposed the fighting, abuse and depression the Quintuplets supposedly endured. This book and the interviews exposed a side of the Dionne story that no one had ever talked about publicly yet. The one thing the sisters did before returning to seclusion, was suing the government for everything they allowed to happen to these five innocent girls and their family. The Canadian government fought them hard, and while it's nowhere near what they were owed, Yvonne, Annette and Cécile won $4 million. $1 million for each surviving sister, and the last million was left to the children of Marie. Since Émilie died with no children, she didn't receive any money. The family also never got anything from the government. The money, or even lack there of most of it, did nothing to help the sisters and their family heal. If anything, all of this information did nothing but tear an already immensely broken family further apart.

     When the public debacle with the government was over, life resumed. But, the sisters never had peace for long enough. In the early 2000's, tragedy struck again. Yvonne's health began to decline and she was diagnosed with cancer. She passed away in the presence of her surviving sisters, on June 23rd, 2001. As she always wished, her death was handled privately. Yvonne's death was not the first in the recent years in the Dionne family. Three Dionne children, Ernest, Daniel and Rose Marie all died in 1995. The two eldest Dionne brothers died within a week of each other. Victor later died in 2007, then Claude in 2009, Oliva Jr. in 2017, Pauline in 2018, and lastly, Thérèse in 2021. Annette and Cécile are now the only surviving Dionne family members.

     Other than these tragedies, Annette and Cécile live very quiet lives. Annette lives by herself in the same suburb of Montreal that she raised her children in. Cécile lives in a nursing home due to poor health and financial issues, but remains in close contact with her sister. The two surviving Dionnes are still as close as ever, although before their siblings deaths they hadn't had contact with them for years due to the ever present resentment of what happened 88 years ago.