Cécile Dionne, of the Dionne quintuplets.
I suspect most of my readers are passingly familiar with this story, but if you’re not, I recommend reading the obit. In brief, the quintuplets were made wards of the state after their birth and placed on public display by the doctor who delivered some of them.
They were left with emotional scars from the experience, and possibly from parental abuse after their parents regained custody. Emilie Dionne died in a convent at the age of 20. Marie Dionne died at 36.
In 1995, when they were past 60, the three surviving quintuplets said in a ghostwritten book that their father had sexually abused them as teenagers — an accusation that their other siblings denied and that some critics suggested had been motivated by a hope that the book would be a big success. It wasn’t.
But the sisters had sued the province of Ontario for compensation, and after a public uproar, they received a $2.8 million settlement, which seemed to secure their financial future.
For Cécile, who had worked as a clerk in a supermarket, the solvency was short-lived. Her surviving twin son, Bertrand, helped her buy a duplex apartment, where they lived together for a few years. Then, with Cécile’s health beginning to fail, Bertrand sold the home and moved his mother to a high-end senior residence. But he stopped paying the monthly fees in 2010 and disappeared without a trace.
Impoverished, hobbled after a hip replacement and with failing eyesight because of macular degeneration, Cécile was forced into a shabby old-age home, again a ward of the state. Annette helped her by buying a refrigerator for her room and paying for haircuts. The sisters talked several times a day and, as always, completed each other’s sentences.
Yvonne Dionne died in 2001. With Cécile Dionne’s death, Annette is the last surviving quintuplet.