For almost 50 years, Rosia Lee Rand helped and advocated for youth as a foster mother in Oakland.
Associated with the Alameda County Foster Parent Association, Chapter One. Hundreds of children, from toddlers through adolescence, benefited from Rand’s loving care as she taught them discipline and structure. When she passed away July 8 due to health complications and the coronavirus, she was just 20 days from her 94th birthday. Her loving nature toward her foster children, church and the community will long be remembered. Albertine Hughes, herself a foster parent and former ACFPA president for 21 years, worked with Rand for more than 30 years.
“Rosia Lee was a dedicated foster parent, she attended association meetings and worked with the Christmas program,” Hughes said. “She was an emergency foster parent, so we would have meetings at her home and meet with a social worker who would help us with how to accept foster children.”
Working initially as an in-home care worker, when Rand moved to Oakland she set her goals on helping disadvantaged children. It started with two children and was often as many as five, ages 3 to 17, always girls and of all races. Many lacked discipline due to the homes they had come from; many had been sexually abused. On average the girls stayed from five to 10 years. Rosialee Jones, Rand’s biological granddaughter, spent a lot of her time at Rand’s home, living there off and on and regularly on weekends and during summers. As such, she was a regular member of Rand’s foster family.
“My grandmother intrinsically knew what to do with these girls. She came from a line of extremely strong women; she was from the South, and it was a very different time back then. She was always a hard worker, and her own mother was always an extremely hard worker,” Jones said. “I think she always wanted to be able to help people. She had compassion and love, but she also got the job done.”
Rand even opened her home to older foster girls, ages 15 to 17, many who were sexually active or on drugs, situations that would make many foster parents apprehensive about being able to control them.
“She was a strong disciplinarian, all by structure and order,” Jones said.
“Many of these girls who were in her home are now married and have beautiful families, and I honestly don’t believe their lives would have turned out the way they are now if it wasn’t for her structure and the values she taught them about womanhood.”
Jones described a typical, well-structured day, with everyone up in the morning, helping out in the kitchen, cooking and making sure breakfast was made. Beds were also made. Her grandmother would have her coffee, read the newspaper and listen to the news.
“This was her favorite part of the day, so I thought, ‘What better way to honor her legacy than by having a newspaper article about her life’s work?’ ” Jones said.
Later there would always be homework, even if there weren’t any assignments from school. The girls would work in math books or read. On Wednesdays they would go to the grocery store, with Rand holding a bunch of coupons she had collected. On Sundays, everyone went to church.
“My grandmother was very religious, and she was a mother figure in the church. We would donate food, and we were part of the choir; the church was a part of our lives,” Jones said.
Rand loved cooking and sharing huge family dinners with others, inviting people from the church or those who were struggling to enjoy a good meal. She shared what she had by donating groceries to homeless shelters and always participated in the Alameda County Food and Toy Drive.
Rand formally adopted DeVaughan Samuel when she was 3 years old, and Samuel values all the years she lived there as Rand’s daughter, describing their mother-daughter relationship as wonderful.
“There wasn’t a single time when I felt like I didn’t belong or that I wasn’t family. She always told me, ‘I know I didn’t give birth to you, but you feel just like you’re my own,’ ” Samuel said.
She describes Rand as an important factor in the lives, not only of many youth but of adults too as she nurtured youth and members of her church.
“A lot of people would tend to gravitate to her, so she had many, many children besides the ones she gave birth to,” she said. “She played her role well.”
Rand was a woman to whom sharing and caring for others was a way of life.
“I think my grandmother’s biggest challenge was she gave so much; she was always so giving, so open,” Jones said. “She let anyone stay with her who needed a home. Many foster kids who age out of the system have nowhere to stay so they’d go back and ask to stay with her, and she would let them, as well as their boyfriend or husband. She had a long history of kids who wanted to go back and live with her; many considered her like their own biological mother or grandmother.”
“First and foremost, I’d like my mother to be remembered for her unwavering faith in God and secondly, for her love and compassion and her willingness to help others,” Samuel added.