Diane Sardam is not the type to brag about her good deeds. A
local mom who makes a point of improving her community when the
opportunity arises, she is one of Hollister’s unsung heroes.
Hollister – Diane Sardam is not the type to brag about her good deeds. A local mom who makes a point of improving her community when the opportunity arises, she is one of Hollister’s unsung heroes.
Sardam, 54, grew up in Watsonville with her twin sister Joanne by her side. While not predisposed to trouble, the temptation of living with a look-alike occasionally proved too much for the girls. In high school Diane would take Joanne’s place in classes her sister disliked, and bring up her grades. Eventually the plot folded – a scar underneath Sardam’s eye distinguished her from her twin.
“People still mix us up all the time today,” she said. “Complete strangers wave at me like they’re my best friend, and I have no idea who they are.”
After high school, Sardam tried her hand at a number of jobs, but decided to follow a higher calling – motherhood. Unable to have a child on her own, she adopted her son Matthew in 1981 and moved to Hollister that same year.
“I wanted to raise my child in a small town, and Hollister seemed to work,” she said.
Sardam considers the day she met her husband George, more than 19 years ago, one of the pivotal moments in her life. The two caught each other’s eye driving opposite directions down Santa Ana Road. For two months, Diane mooned over the mysterious stranger, only to run into him again at the daycare center where Matthew stayed – George had two children of his own. The two went out for coffee, and the rest is history.
“Raising a child alone is tough,” she said. “But George has been so wonderful.”
Diane adopted George’s children, twins Matthew and Savannah.
“People always ask why there’s two Matthews in the family,” she said. “But neither boy was about to change his name, so we just sort of went with it.”
However, in 1988 the Sardams’ miraculously conceived, and their youngest son Vincent was born. Since Diane’s sister had been unable to conceive herself, the couple chose to raise him as a shared son with Joanne and her husband.
“He would go to their house every weekend,” Sardam said. “And you know what? He turned out great.”
As a mother, it was very important for her to raise her children with a sense of social responsibility. Often she would take her kids to read to younger children, or buy presents and decorations for needy families during the holidays.
Now that her kids are adults, Sardam continues to care for those in her community. She works part time assisting disabled children and combines her passion for bargain hunting with her desire to help others by scoping out yard sales.
“I love antiques, and I find great stuff for myself,” she said. “But you can also find other items that people really need for a quarter a piece.”
Sardam became a grandmother for the first time five months ago, when her daughter gave birth to a baby girl named Fiona. And not a day goes by that she doesn’t spend time with them, while she and her husband gear up for retirement in Oregon.
“We’re looking forward to a change of scene,” she said. “And George promises to take me to all the yard sales I want.”
