In Memory of Tracy Randol
I originally didn't want to share any personal details/info about what had happened to my mom, but it is seriously not okay and I want to make sure we can do something about this in order to prevent this from happening to other families.
It breaks my heart to say that my mom, Tracy Randol, has passed away. Those of you who knew her and were blessed to experience the spirit of her kind, beautiful and most generous soul, also shares in our grief from her passing on april 24,2021. She loved fiercely, gave freely, and left this world too soon. I’m happy to know that she is finally safe, at peace and free from all of the pain. She has had a very challenging last 10 years due to struggling with homelessness. Since she was a woman who was homeless, she wasn’t treated as a human being, and unfortunately took her last breath with no one by her side. Tracy was a mother, a daughter and a sister. She deserved so much more.
Let me rewind back to how I haven’t talked to my mom since the end of February. I thought it was bizarre that I haven’t heard from my mom in over a month since she would call me weekly. Last time I spoke to her, she was telling me she was in a shelter due to the rain and I was so happy to hear that she had a roof over her head. After I didn’t hear from her for a few weeks, I started to get worried and would call/text her repeatedly and it would go straight to voicemail. I just assumed it was because she was in the shelter and maybe they had strict rules about not having phones. My aunt and I would even drive by the park or her hangout spots to try and find her and we still didn’t see any sign of her. After Mother’s Day passed and I didn’t hear from her, I had this gut feeling that something was seriously wrong. We contacted the Homeless Task Force through the police and found out they’ve been keeping tabs on my mom for months. The last time they saw her was when she was in the shelter but she was only there for a few days and they hadn’t seen her since. I’m very upset that they didn’t try to look for her after they know that she left. We filed a missing persons report and did our own detective work by asking the entire homeless community where they last seen my mom. Everyone had the same timeline saying it’s been about two or three months. We then found out from the police that they found her belongings in front of the post office on March 21st. Again, that made me sick to my stomach because I immediately knew something was seriously wrong. My mom would NEVER leave her belongings anywhere. We then called jails, hospitals and fire departments. We eventually got a call back and received a VOICEMAIL from the fire department saying they picked my mom up from the post office on march 21st at 3:40am. They took her to Fountain Valley Hospital and immediately admitted her to the ER because she lost her pulse, but the voicemail said they revived her. The voicemail ended after that. I had no idea if she was still there, or if she was okay or not. I ended up calling medical records of the hospital and tell them what i just found out. The woman i’m speaking to does not prepare me whatsoever for the news of my mother's' passing. She doesn’t know if I’m driving? standing on the edge of a bridge? she doesn’t even ask if I'm sitting down. All she says is "Oh ...she’s dead.” With no apology. nothing. I immediately hung up the phone and lose it knowing that my mom had passed and I had absolutely NO IDEA. The next day, we spoke to a social worker and found out that she didn’t pass away on march 21st and she actually passed away on april 24th and was on life support for a full month. Again, I had NO IDEA?!?!? It absolutely kills me that my mom was alone in the hospital for that long and no one was with her to say goodbye when she took her last breath.
Since my mom was incoherent and had no identification on her when she was admitted, they had to fingerprint her. so they did find out her name was Tracy Randol. However, it stated that she was homeless with no next of kin. Which explains why no one contacted me to tell me. However, the hospital still made NO EFFORTS to contact anyone that was significant to my mom. They could have easily contacted the police station or attempted to call other hospitals. Since I was actually her next of kin at Huntington Beach hospital, they could have simply GOOGLED her name and found out that she has a daughter. It breaks my heart because I know for a fact, that if she wasn’t homeless and her file still said no next of kin, more efforts would have been made.
I hate that today our society, people look at the homeless, and they automatically think they are associated with the negative and harmful stereotype and forget to think that they are still human and there are people that love them and care about them!! It kills me knowing that she was alone, and also knowing that if I didn’t even make an effort to find out where my mom was, no one was going to even contact me and tell me that she was gone. A few more months could have gone by and I still would have NO IDEA that my mom has left this earth. This grief is absolutely unbearable and we still need to schedule her cremation and plan her memorial service.
We weren’t aware of all the many steps involved in preparing or even transporting my mom, and preparing for a lovely memorial service that she deserves. Unfortunately, even viewing/identifying my mom costs money. The death certificate costs money. the service, florals, invites, printing out pictures etc. Everything adds up so quickly. Anything you can donate would be extremely helpful to us.
It would mean a lot if you can share my moms story, and hopefully we can spread awareness and make sure this doesn’t continue to happen to other families!
