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Devoted to Babies. Franco G. Diligenti, born in Milan, Italy, 45 years ago, came to Argentina in 1923. He is tall, well-built, with thin blond hair and slightly bulgy blue eyes. Starting from scratch, he made about a million dollars, owns three large farms, a dye works, a textile mill and a vegetable-oil factory. Señora Ana María Aversavo de Diligenti, pleasant, plump, 42 and also born near Milan, came to Argentina as a singer with a small opera company, leaving a husband in Italy. She gave up her career eight years ago when she and a small son, by her first husband, moved in with Señor Diligenti.
Divorces are slow in Catholic Argentina. She had two more children (one the single survivor of a set of triplets) before she was legally free to marry her common-law husband. But marry they did on March 17, 1942. Only grimly Catholic Argentines, who do not recognize divorce or subsequent remarriage, will call the quints illegitimate.
The Diligenti household is a pleasant one, mostly devoted to babies. Except for the dining room, the entire ground floor of the comfortable eight-room house is a three-room nursery for the quints. The rest of the family live upstairs or in a made-over garage. The establishment runs like clockwork, the babies taking naps at staggered intervals to make them easier to care for.
Only two of the quints are identical; the rest are all types, ranging from blond to dark. Papa Diligenti calls them a "full house"—three queens, two jacks. They are healthy, normal children; they were bottle-raised in their own home, never saw a doctor. Their diet is sensible, plain, with plenty of fruit juices.
It is still a mystery how quintuplets could be concealed so long. Perhaps their parents' irregular relationship kept them socially isolated. Possibly Argentine newsmen are not alert. But it is no mystery to Papa Diligenti. He planned it that way, even registering the births in different offices or not at all. Midwife Delfino kept her pledge. The household was mum as clams. Forceful Papa Diligenti had made his wishes clear: "Do I want a bunch of maniacs running through my house, bulbs flashing in my babies' faces? I want my children to live normal lives. . . . I don't want to have to visit my own children. . . . Dionne was not prepared, but I am."*
* Buenos Aires also had a set of quadruplets last week, but all of them died. * The heaviest twin ever recorded arrived recently in Birmingham, England. He weighed 10 lb. 14 oz. His nonidentical brother weighed 8 lb. 4 oz. * For news of Papa Dionne, see page 24.