She’d just returned to work full-time as a 911 operator for the city of Burbank about 18 months after having her son. She’d been working for two weeks when the seizures hit.
Valencia resident Emily Randall — a wife and a mother, who was 31 years old at the time and historically healthy up to that point — never had seizures before. She didn’t have convulsions, but the seizures affected her speech.
After multiple tests over the course of many weeks, she learned initially that she had a lesion on her brain, later a tumor. She underwent brain surgery, suffered more seizures, and ultimately received the kind of news that no one ever wants to hear.
“While I was recovering from the brain surgery, basically, we were just waiting for pathology to come back for the tumor that they removed, and they said that they got everything they needed out,” Randall said during a recent telephone interview. “That’s when I found out — in March at my followup appointment — that I had a Grade 4 brain cancer tumor.”
Randall, now 32, grew up in Valencia. She went to Valencia High School, played soccer at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, became a 911 operator for the city of Burbank, and met Josh Randall, a Burbank Police officer, who would become her husband.
As they started dating, the couple realized they’d unknowingly crossed paths in the past.
“We grew up with the same family and friends and actually found pictures of us when we were 3 and 4 years old at the same birthday parties,” she said. “We put those pictures in frames at our wedding because, yeah, we have pictures together when we were little kids.”
Randall described some of the pictures — one of them showed her on a slip-and-slide, her future husband in line behind her, and another shot showed the two of them sitting at the same table eating pizza. They didn’t know each other then — rather, they happened to be at the same parties.
Both went away to college in Oregon — again unbeknownst to each other. They got to know each other through their work in Burbank.
The couple got married on April 30, 2022. Their son, Rowan, was born on Aug. 23, 2023.
Over the years, the young family took trips to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and to Disneyland, and they had none of the health issues Randall would experience on their radar.
In April, Randall’s sister, Sarah Silver, started a GoFundMe page to piggyback on efforts from family and friends who’d been providing meals for Randall and her family during their difficult time.
In a message on the page from Silver, she wrote, “We’ve created this GoFundMe to provide a way for friends, family and extended community to contribute directly to Emily’s ongoing care, medical expenses and the support they’ll need for their 19-month-old son, Rowan.”
The page, as of the publication of this story, has received over 680 donations totaling more than $95,000. Randall and her husband were more than grateful for everyone’s generosity. Her husband brought up how donated meals helped when they were in the hospital for a number of weeks, and how the funds have helped them in a number of ways.
“It’s been, honestly, a huge blessing for us, especially with her (Randall) not being able to work,” he said. “I’ll have to be going back to work, I think, in late July. I was able to get a bunch of time off and use all my time through the police department. But it (the money collected) has been huge with the medical bills, the food and anything that we possibly need.”
Randall worried that her disability benefits might not cover her for long. She was grateful to have the funds for when she and her family might need assistance the most.
She was hesitant to look too far ahead.
“To be completely honest, and I hope — I hope I can get through this part — but we don’t know what the future looks like for me,” Randall said. “Just to have the support financially in case I don’t get to go back to work — everyone wanted to make sure that Rowan would have the support if he’d ever need it in the future, as far as Josh needing child care or any support if something were to happen to me. But I don’t think that’s what everyone’s thought was at first.”
Randall and her husband said they have a long, ever-changing road ahead of them. They really don’t know what to expect. They’re extremely thankful for all those who have been in their corner with their support and their presence.
Randall’s husband said that none of what’s happening makes any sense, that it hit them so unexpectedly. All they can do, he added, is navigate it the best they can and take it day by day.
To view Randall’s GoFundMe page, go to bit.ly/3ZqK3aP.
