Miracle five

In Canada, Dion's Gemini's house was saved (there were five of them), who found great depression. Why is their fate so amazing

On April 4, the North Bay, in Ontario, discussed the fate of the “Gemini Dion House”-a wooden hut, where the famous Canadian “Five” was born on May 28, 1934. The twin sisters Dion became a symbol of hope in the midst of the great depression and the national attraction: this is the first case in Canada, when five single-eating twins were born at once and all of them survived. It seemed a story of success, but the fate of the sisters developed tragically: in infancy they were taken from home and exposed as a medical miracle, but returning home was even worse - they were beaten and harassed in the family. Two of the sisters survived to the present day and at the end of 2016 entered the struggle for the house where they were born - the Canadian journalist Ien Austin spoke with them for The New York Times. "Medusa" tells the story of their family.

The last two sisters of the five legendary Dion Gemini-82-year-old Annetta and Cecil-rarely communicate with the press. One of them has just undergone surgery on the edge; The New York Times reporter met her right in the hospital ward. The reason for meeting with the journalist was the next debate about the future of the house where their family lived and which was moved twice already - in 1962 and 1985.

On April 4, at the City Council of North Bey, they considered the question of whether the city needs a house-museum and who will contain it. According to estimates, the heritage of the sisters Dion costs the city budget of five thousand Canadian dollars a year; In 2015, the museum was closed to visitors. Meanwhile, 80 years ago, the sisters, on the contrary, brought a stable income to the city treasury: barely born, the miracle girls became the main local attraction. At five months of age, the sisters were taken from the family, arranged for them a separate kindergarten with medical staff and showed for money. In the first nine years of the twin’s life, 30 million people came to look at them.

Ivonna, Annetta, Cecil, Emily and Marie were born on May 28, 1934 on a farm in Ontario. The one -euthered twins were born two months ahead of schedule - they weighed only six with a small kilogram. Few people expected them to survive, even parents: before that in Canada, such cases were not known. Women from the surrounding villages came to the aid of the family, and the Red Cross sent a nanny and an incubator of 30 years ago-there was no electricity in the house, so there was nothing to connect a more modern model to.

By the time of the birth of twins, there were already five children in the Dion family: three girls and two boys, the youngest of them, Paulina, was only 11 months older than her twins. Later, their parents, Elzira and Oliva Dion, had three more sons. Now only two of their older sisters - Teresa and Paulin, born in 1929 and 1933, remained alive, except for the twins of Annetta and Cecil.

The news of the birth of girls flew around the newspaper; On May 30, 1934, The New York Times published a note about sisters who reported an amazing progress: “Girls who have struck the medical community for three days, and they continue to grow in milk, corn syrup and water.” The article noted that "the father of the family begins to seriously worry, how much it will cost him to wear five daughters equally." After publications in newspapers about girls, they spoke throughout the country, and helped help and support letters to the family; In one of these letters coming from the Appalachi, parents were advised to add whiskey to the children's mixture, "to avoid diarrhea."

Not only the press, but also the organizers of the World Exhibition in Chicago became interested in the miracle girls-the father signed a contract for the exposition of her daughters, but the public intervened. Parents were accused of operating children and the inability to support them, and the girls were taken to the care of the Ontario power. So at five months of age, the twins were taken from the house and settled in a specially built nine-room panic hospital across the road from their native farm. It was there that the Gemini Dion spent the first nine years of his life - under the vigilant supervision of doctors and onlookers. The territory of the kindergarten was fenced off with a fence, through which everyone who bought the entrance ticket could observe their lives.

“It was a paradise,” Annetta Dion recalls with a smile the conditions in which they lived. She also admitted that she was horrified, for the first time seeing her home: “I doubt that we would have survived there.” At the same time, the sisters remind that they actually stole their childhood: "There is nothing good in putting children for public display."

All income from “Quintland” (the so -called their place of residence, from the word Quints, “five”) and numerous thematic souvenirs (including dolls) should have entered a special fund and stored there until the age of majority of the sisters. According to experts, Ontario Provinceearned about $ 500 million on them, but at 21, each of the sisters received only 170 thousand. At nine years old, parents achieved their return to the family; Girls were waiting for a new brick house, built for some "earned" money. Annetta and Cecil recall that the falling wealth completely changed their attitude towards them in the family: "We were not perceived as children - rather as slaves or servants." After waiting for the 18th anniversary, all five sisters left for Quebec to study and have since avoided contacts with the family. Emily Dion became a nun and died at 20 years old, Marie - 36 from a blood clot.

In 1997, the three surviving sisters - Annetta, Cecil and Ivonna - published an open letter to the McCogoga family, where seven twins were born in Time magazine. They turned to their parents and asked to protect children from excessive attention of the press and the public. “We hope that your children will treat with great respect than to us,” the letter said.

In the age of 61, in one of the interviews, the sisters said that they were regularly subjected to violence from their own father - not only psychological, but also sexual: "He took us one at a time and touched us." The Gemini admitted that they were afraid to tell her mother about this, so as not to “not heated the situation” - their motherbeat them. According to them, the only to whom they complained was a school priest - he advised them to continue to love his father and dress in these walks in more dense clothes.

By 1998, the sisters who were in debt were able to sue four million Canadian dollars compensation for operation in childhood - but not everyone went to this money. One of the sons Cecile escaped from the country with the entire part of its payment; He was never found.

In 2016, the sisters were again remembered about the history of the sisters-this time in connection with the difficult fate of their home. In the mid-1980s, the building was transferred to North Bay to the intersection of two large highways and opened the Gemini House-Museum in it. However, 20 years later, the city authorities considered it unprofitable and closed it. A buyer was found on a plot of land where the museum stood, and the house was offered to move to the tourist village of Sandridge 75 kilometers from the city. In the fall of 2016, the residents of North Bey organized a petition with a request to save the house in the city or its immediate vicinity, it was signed by 1668 people. Despite the heavy memories, Annett and Cecil Dion supported the initiative. “This museum is a reminder of how they treated people simply because they are not like everyone else,” the sisters said .

On April 4, at a meeting of the City Council of North Bey, it was decided to leave the house-museum under urban jurisdiction and transfer it to the shore of Lake Nipissing, not far from the Discovery North Bay museum. The transfer and restoration of the Dion house will cost the city authorities of 150 thousand Canadian dollars.

Olga Strachovskaya