The Quintland Sisters(42)
December 4, 1936
Today is Ivy’s last day before she heads off on her “holiday,” as she persists in calling it. As if she is definitely going to come back. I don’t think either of us believes it.
I’m just so desperately sad. I’ve known this was coming, I suppose, but I didn’t expect her to leave until she actually got married. I can’t imagine what it will be like here without her any more than I can imagine being in Ivy’s shoes and setting off on this great adventure.
The Newspaper Enterprise Association has organized for her to spend six months giving a series of lectures all across the United States about her work as the head nurse at the Dafoe Nursery. Her first stop is New York, where she is going to broadcast a five-part radio serial on the first two years of the babies’ lives. I’ve always thought Ivy had a lovely voice. It’s a tremendous opportunity and she will be very well paid, with all her expenses covered, and she’ll get to see so much of the world. She and Fred have agreed to postpone their wedding until the following year, at the earliest, but I can’t believe that means she will come back to us when her tour is over.
Whatever she and Dr. Dafoe discussed the day of the premiere left her very upset, and the doctor didn’t join us at the theater after all. I asked Ivy if he feels she is nabbing some of the spotlight from him, because he has certainly enjoyed many American speaking engagements himself over the past two years. When I said that, she flashed her snaggle-toothed smile and threw an arm around my shoulders, saying, “You don’t miss a beat, Emma Trimpany.”
The thing is, I simply don’t think she would have accepted this offer if it had come a few months ago, before Dr. Blatz arrived with all his rules and measurements, before things got so ridiculous with the Dionnes. M. Dionne is now threatening to sue Dr. Dafoe for speaking English to the girls. We’re fed up with all the talk of lawsuits. The corn syrup lawsuit is dragging on and on—there’s a good chance Dr. Dafoe is going to be called in to testify. I can’t understand why this all matters so much.
Ivy won’t discuss it, but I think she is also upset about what happened with Nurse Nicolette. We’ve never heard another word from her, although even if she’d written there’s a chance her letter might have gone astray. Father has told me that the nursery continues to get bulging bags of mail every week, all of it handled by Dr. Dafoe. He has said he is getting a secretary in the New Year to keep up on the volume.
“Did you write to her?” I asked Ivy. She was in her room packing up some last things. I could scarcely watch.
She looked upset at my question. “I have asked Dr. Dafoe for her address and he flatly refused to provide it, saying he needs to protect her privacy. I asked Fred if he would help me track it down, but he, too, says that if she wants to get in touch she will.”
She paused and let the dress she was folding fall rumpled into her suitcase. “But what happened, Em?” She shook her head. “Something happened. Something happened here, I think, and Dr. Dafoe has decided it’s no one’s business.”
Then she turned to me and pulled my hands from my lap, holding both of them in hers, looking me straight in the eye. She looked sad and worried.
“You’ll be careful, won’t you? You keep your eyes open. Keep the girls safe, but keep yourself safe too. Can you do that for me?”
I nodded and stood, giving her a hug. Then, because I thought I might start crying, I left and came back here to scribble down all my silly self-pity. I keep expecting to hear her knock and poke her head around the door to say, “Forget it, I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to see the world. My world is here, with the girls and with you.”
But of course she won’t be knocking.
December 10, 1936 (Montreal Gazette/Canadian Press)
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$150,000 SUIT OVER SYRUP FED QUINTS
Callander Grocer Testifies as to Brand Purchased by Oliva Dionne
TORONTO, Ontario—James McDonald, manager of a Callander grocery store, said in assize court today that Oliva Dionne bought a ten-pound tin of Crown Brand corn syrup from him “two or three days” before the Dionne quintuplets were born.
The brand named is a product of the Canada Starch Company, which is suing the St. Lawrence Starch Company for $150,000, claiming that the defendants falsely advertised their brand of corn syrup was the first to be fed to the Quints.
Canada Starch contends that its Crown Brand has this honour.
Also acting as witness for the plaintiffs, was Miss Alma Dionne, the quintuplets’ aunt, who said she was at the Dionne home May 30, 1934, following the birth of the quintuplets. She had helped Nurse Leroux prepare the food in the evening and had assisted in feeding the children and that Crown Brand syrup was used.
Before the suit ends, Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, physician to the famous sisters, will likely appear as witness, having been subpoenaed to testify for the defence.
Sidelights on the birth of the Dionnes was given the court when Marie-Jeanne Lebel told how she was called as a midwife by Oliva Dionne to his home about 2am on that eventful day. She stayed until 8:30 at night on the Monday following the babes’ birth and testified that they only got warm water that day. Mrs. Lebel told the court that when she visited the babies on the Wednesday following their birth on the dining room table was a big tin of Crown Brand syrup.