Grandma Sadie and Grandma June

My father claims he didn't know his grandmother's first names until he was an adult. He always knew them as Grandma Sadie and Grandma June. Grandma Sadie was his mother's mother and Grandma June was his father's mother.²

Grandma Sadie was my father's favorite. He said he was blessed to have two women who loved him unconditionally - his mother and grandma Sadie. Grandma Sadie and I met briefly - I was born in March. She died in May. I am told, I visited Grandma Sadie in the hospital before she died.

Both Grandma Sadie and Grandma June were widows by the time my father was born in 1938. I have the impression that at one point both were living with or near my grandparents. At one point Grandma June and both her sons and daughters-in-law were sharing a house.₂ Apparently, Aunt Melba didn't like the arrangement - she and Lamar moved out to their own house.

My grandfather, June's older son, loved to drive. After my Aunt Nancy was born, my grandfather decided to take the family out to Yellowstone for a long weekend. The baby was left with the two grandmothers. That night my grandmother had a dream that night and saw her baby in a pool of blood. Much to my grandfather's dismay my grandmother insisted the family return to Salt Lake. When they returned they found the grandmothers had been in a car accident and the baby had been in a pool of blood - the baby was fine, the blood had come from her grandmothers.

My niece Julie shares a name with Grandma June. Grandma Gladys, my grandmother, shares the same birthday - April 6, as her mother, Grandma Sadie.

¹Grandma Sadie is Sarah Jane Dibble. Grandma June is Julia Lucretia Bagley.
²1930 Federal Census, Utah Population schedules: Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City (EDs 18-1 to 18-11, 18-135 to 18-136, 18-12 to 18-21) [NARA, T626 roll 2418]