Brandy Anne Foster

She was a beloved sweet and tender soul, a caring person, a talented artist, a beloved sister and daughter. Her life began in the SF Bay Area in 1990. She was born in Palo Alto, CA and started off her life in Redwood City, CA with her mother, grandmother, and older sister. When they were sadly separated by the foster care system, Brandy was first in the care of her grandmother and then was later adopted by family friend Doris Filippello. This was due to the untimely death of her mother and her unborn sister, as well as the advanced cancer her grandmother was suffering from. Doris Filippello raised Brandy like her own daughter in San Francisco, CA until Brandy completed middle school.

Then they moved to Northern California, where Doris bought land and a home for them in Rancho Tehama. Brandy completed her education there at Corning High School. Doris and Brandy took an extended road trip vacation together around many states and national monuments. Sadly her adoptive mother Doris also passed away from cancer later on in the home, leaving her the home and the land, and the memories that came with it.

Brandy stayed in her inherited home surrounded by her many beloved cats, familial memories, her cultivated cacti and succulents, her 2 closest high school friends, and later on her boyfriend of 10 years. She worked as a caregiver and care home administrator up until her sudden death.

She reunited with her sister and last surviving family member in 2009. They reconnected quickly, making up for lost time as best they could and working through the shared childhood traumas they endured while making new positive memories as adults. Despite the distance (between Rancho Tehama and the Bay Area), email, text messages, and social media helped bridge the gaps when they couldn’t come to one another’s homes for visits as often as they would have liked. They traveled together, read together, shopped together, celebrated holidays and milestones together, and hunted for family members together while painfully treading through old family records and history looking for answers for what had befallen the family.

Brandy had held onto the ashes of her mother, adopted mother, and grandmother with plans in the future that she and her older sister would be able to either scatter or inter them together in memorium. It was their hope that this would help the family members to be at rest together, no longer separated in death as they were in life. They looked forward to closing those painful chapters of the past, and moving forward to make better lives and choices for themselves together.

Brandy was active in ancestry and genealogy forums, looking for any distant unknown family members that might be out there. She never lost that craving for family, belonging, and answers to the past unknowns. It was a real-life mystery to her what had befallen the Fosters, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. In these pursuits, she had found an aunt and half uncles, which while exciting, raised more questions than answers for her. Prior to her untimely passing, she was planning to meet these new distant relatives and learn more about forgotten family secrets together with her sister. Sadly she never got to fulfill those aspirations or make those in-person connections.

She was preceded in death by her mother Linda Ruth Foster, unborn sister Heather Foster, grandmother Doris Glendenning, grandfather Floyd Foster Jr., and adoptive mother Doris Filippello. She is survived by her only sister Misty Blue Foster.

Prayers are appreciated. It is the fervent hope of her surviving sister that Brandy has rejoined the family members who had crossed over before them in Heaven, and that they were waiting with open arms to welcome her home when it was suddenly her turn to go. She now has all the answers she wanted up there and all the family and belonging she so determinedly sought while here on Earth. She is greatly missed and deeply beloved. Thank you.

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