N.C. quintuplets' mom chats on the joys and trials of raising her brood

y MARTI DAVIS, martidav@comcast.net
August 10, 2005

Kent and Nancy Olson Miller avoid drawing attention to the fact that five of their children share the same birthday.
It's sometimes unavoidable, for instance, on their real birthday, which they recently celebrated in Knoxville at the home of their grandparents Art and Betty Olson. The Olsons live at Lyons Bend and Duncan roads on the Riverbend Peninsula in West Knoxville.


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Ellie, Emery, Grace, Maggie and Martin Miller, now 7, were all born July 7, 1998, the first surviving set of quintuplets born in the state of North Carolina and one of very few nationally to survive without any physical or mental handicaps.

The Miller quintuplets, their sister, 10-year-old Anna, and parents live in Wake Forest, N.C., but often visit Knoxville, where the children enjoy playing on the sprawling family homestead with their Olson cousins, who live next door to their grandparents.

The Millers and their Olson cousins especially look forward to rides on Hercules, a dappled white Shetland pony that Art and Betty Olson keep in a pasture next to their home. He's not only a favorite with their grandchildren but has become something of a neighborhood pet, attracting children and adults who feed him carrots and lumps of sugar.

Nancy Miller, a 1978 graduate of Bearden High School, became pregnant with the quintuplets using the same fertility drugs she used to conceive their first daughter, Anna. Upon learning they had quintuplets, the Millers refused their doctor's insistent pleas to reduce the number of fetuses.

"Most quints don't make it, and we knew that," Nancy Miller said. "Either they won't all be born, or only one will live. In most of them, there's one with some pretty significant problems. We knew the risk of severe disabilities was higher," she said.

Though very small at birth, the quintuplets are now all within the normal range in height and weight, and all are quite intelligent and curious.

"We are very, very blessed that they are healthy. It makes life considerably easier than if some of them had special needs," their mother said.

Nancy Miller, who trained as a speech therapist at the University of Tennessee, homeschools all her children, a decision she and her husband made before the quintuplets were expected.

"We just love being with our children and (deciding) what we want them to focus their energies on," she said. "A lot of people feel like it would be insanely difficult." In fact, she finds teaching the children a joy and perhaps less chaotic than it would be if she were getting six children off to school each morning, meeting with a posse of different teachers and keeping up with multiple projects and homework assignments.
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