Euphemia Dimick (neé MacDonald) was born in 1877 near Gaston, Oregon. After studying at the Oregon State Normal School (now Western Oregon University) in Monmouth, she married Augustus Dimick (1870-1940) in 1898.

In 1916, Euphemia Dimick gave birth to a daughter, Ruth Elizabeth Dimick. Following the birth, Euphemia Dimick observed that Ruth Dimick had difficulty in developing motor skills. This was initially thought to be spastic paraplegia; it was not until Ruth Dimick had grown up that it was determined her condition was athetoid cerebral palsy. Euphemia Dimick took an active interest in her daughter's education. Because schools had sole discretion on whether to accept Ruth Dimick as a pupil, Euphemia Dimick returned to the Oregon State Normal School to obtain a teaching license. If a school refused to admit Ruth, this allowed Euphemia Dimick to have her daughter in her own classroom while teaching.

In the 1940s, Ruth Dimick joined the Chin Up Club, a club for people with disabilities. In 1948, she became editor of the club's newsletter, the Oregon Beacon, a position that she held until 1952, when her condition prevented her from continuing the work. Ruth Dimick lived in nursing homes for the last two decades of her life. When her health began to fail, Euphemia Dimick moved into the same nursing home as her daughter. Euphemia Dimick died in 1967; Ruth Dimick died in 1974.

Sources: "Through the Wilderness: A Memoir of Raising a Child with Cerebral Palsy in Early-Twentieth-Century Oregon," by Greg Chaimov with Euphemia Dimick, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 125, No. 3 (Fall 2024), pages 276-303; vital records via Ancestry.com.