Autobiography of Sally Meservy

In MEMORIAL

I wish it was possible to tell the complete story of Sally's life here. Neither my writing skills nor memory will allow that to happen. Luckily, we have lots of written material Sally left us. On this website we will share much of the material we found with the exception of things like journals, letters, and emails. All of this material is also archived in printed form. (Just check out the "infamous" 3-ring binders) These materials have been assembled over the last 3 years (2005) with the majority being collected in the immediate months after November 1, 2002. They have been found in various places and from sources like paper documents (both typed and handwritten), letters, journal pages and pictures (slides, negatives & printed). Some items that Sally authored have been returned so they could be included in my 3-ring binders. In the end, we were able to find some pretty amazing things. The following autobiography was written by Sally Meservy in 1996, six years before her accident. Not sure why it was written but it is great to have it in her own words. [by Mike Meservy]

Short Autobiography 1955-1996 (Written in 1996)

I was the second child born to Robert and Geraldine McKenzie Oxborrow on January 1, 1955, a new year's baby. I was supposedly due the first of December but waited to be the first baby born in White Pine County in 1955. Our parents didn't waste much time having children as they went on to have four boys, then a girl, two more boys, and another girl to round out our family with an even ten children. My older sister Bobbie, at a young age took the family role as boss and organizer and I seemed to become the comforter or confidante to our younger brothers and sisters.

Dad worked with his dad as a dairy farmer, and also at times worked at Kennecott Copper Mine. Mom worked overtime (and still does), taking care of children, gardening, canning, making bread, always cooking wonderful meals, and trying to get us going in the right direction.

Our grandparents were a big part of our lives, as they all lived very close and helped out whenever they could. Grandma Margaret Oxborrow was my first and second grade teacher, and taught me to play the piano. I remember many nights going to grandma's two nights a week for piano lessons and then getting to spend the evening and have dinner with grandma and grandpa. And many mornings I would wake up in the summer and look out my window and see Grandma Sarah McKenzie weeding in mom's garden. Our grandparents' homes where our homes when it was time for mom and dad to travel to Ely to the hospital to deliver another baby.

Being raised in a big family, I never lacked someone to do things with, and we were never lonely. (In fact, I would have liked some more alone time.) We didn't have a lot of material things but at Christmas time I never felt slighted because there were plenty of toys for us to share.

Music was an important part of my life from an early age. I took piano lessons for many years, and played the saxophone in the band at Lund and when we moved to Orem, I played the violin in the orchestra. In sixth grade I had a teacher who taught us to play the ukelele. I went home and picked up my dad's guitar and never wanted to put it down. I have happy memories of singing with my cousins, friends, and especially through the years with my dad.

A tragedy I will never forget is losing my younger brother, Gerald. I was eight and he was five. My parents had gone to a temple trip in St. George and there was an accident on the farm. Grandma and Grandpa Oxborrow rushed Gerald to the hospital in Ely but it was too late. I will never forget waiting that night--it seemed like forever-- and when they finally came back home they were carrying an empty blanket--the one Gerald had been wrapped in. Even at the young age of eight, that night I felt that our lives could never be the same. And in some ways they weren't.

Dad had to have back surgery and was told he should no longer farm. So when I was in sixth grade we moved to Orem, Utah, where Dad attended BYU for the next five years, and also worked as an electrician. It took me quite a while to make good friends, and feel like I fit in, but I have fond memories of those years. (Many summers we returned to Lund because Dad was still farming.) And by the time dad graduated and decided to return to Lund to teach school and farm, I was finishing my sophomore year in High School. I had just made the drill team in Orem, so I had some mixed feelings, but was still excited to move back to Lund. My two remaining high school years were very busy, as everyone had to do almost everything in such a small school.

I attended BYU, where my sister Bobbie was already attending, and received an Associates degree in Secretarial Technology. I met Michael B. Meservy at BYU and we were married on May 14, 1976 in the Provo LDS Temple. I worked at BYU's Motion Picture Studio for two years before our first child was born. After that I did typing in our home for BYU students, as we lived very close to campus.

Mike was a student, and worked selling real estate and as an accountant while he was in school. Although his major was accounting, he found his love to be computers, and that is where he has spent the past fifteen years, as a software developer and consultant.

We have six children, Cara - 18 and a freshman at Ricks College in Rexburg; Dallin Michael - 15, our very social, outgoing, athletic son who is overanxious to be 16 and grown up; Tyler Keith - who has always gone by T.K. is our dedicated, helpful twelve year old; Brighton - 9 is our creative, dramatic poet; Alyssa - 6 is our soft-spoken peacemaker; and Sarah Jane - our 3 year old with very curly long blonde hair keeps us all in our places.

Mike and I have been fortunate to do some traveling in the past 20 years. His work took him to Washington D.C. for 7 weeks. So with two children we drove, seeing Church History sights on the way, doing much sightseeing while we were there and visiting Niagara Falls on the way home. We traveled with three children to Canada to the World's Fair in 1986. And in 1992 we spent three weeks visiting Mike's Sister and Husband in Germany, touring Germany, Holland, Austria, and France.

In 1994 I spent three weeks in Israel and Egypt. Keith Meservy, Mike's dad is a tour director and I was able to go as his assistant. My parents also went on this trip and it proved to be a memorable highlight of my life. (Mike was in Israel for a semester right out of high school and is returning with his Dad this year.)

I have stayed busy, without working, except a little babysitting here and there. I learned to cut hair in college, experimented on my brothers and sisters, and now am the family haircutter. I have done some upholstering, sewing if I have to, and taught preschool to my own children and friends. In the church auxiliaries I spent a couple of years in primary. Since then I have been in Young Women's or Relief Society, serving as Relief Society President for three and a half years, at the time our last child was born. Now I am serving in the Stake as Young Women's Secretary. All of our children have been in a group singing class beginning when they were three or four years old. And the older ones are learning to play the piano, and/or are members of the school choirs.

We live in West Jordan, Utah where we have lived for the past fifteen years. Mike's work has taken him to Las Vegas, Nevada for the past year and a half. He has an apartment there where he stays for four days, then home for the weekend. This has been an adjustment but will soon be coming to an end as he has been hired to open an office in Salt Lake City. [by Sally Oxborrow Meservy]