Adelle Rogoff and Jane Brown have been part of the Rand Aid story for most of their lives – first as young schoolgirls visiting older residents in Bramley and today as neighbours in Inyoni Creek, one of the organisation’s retirement villages.
Founded in 1903 to assist destitute people and men left unemployed by the Anglo-South African War, Rand Aid has spent more than a century supporting vulnerable communities. Today, the organisation operates four independent living retirement villages, two care centres for older adults and a substance use disorder treatment facility.
For Adelle and Jane, however, Rand Aid is far more than an organisation. It is a thread that has quietly connected people, places and memories throughout their lives.
Born in Johannesburg in 1948 and Port Elizabeth in 1949, respectively, the women first encountered what would later become part of the Rand Aid family through Bramley Primary School in the late 1950s.
Every Friday, under the guidance of their teacher, the late Mrs Lawson, Standard Two pupils crossed the road to visit elderly residents at Bramley House.
“We were eight years old,” Adelle recalls. “We would bring cookies, cake, chocolate or a note. We could visit anyone. We would just knock on doors, and they invited us in.”
Jane remembers one resident in particular. “We weren’t allocated to anyone, but the first lady we visited asked us to come back every time. Her name was Granny Beryl,” she says. “For the rest of the year, she was ‘ours’. There were tears all around when the year ended.”
The visits quickly became the highlight of the children’s week. “They were so appreciative and excited to see us,” says Jane. “We were spoilt with hugs, cake and cold drink.”
A community that stayed with them
The experience left a lasting impression on both girls.
For Adelle, it offered an early glimpse of the benefits of community living. “You saw people living happily together and looking out for one another,” she says.
Jane says it also shaped her understanding of ageing. “My gran lived independently until she was 88,” she says. “Looking back, I realise how important friendship and activities are. Loneliness doesn’t have to be part of growing older.”
They still remember Bramley’s flower-filled gardens, Christmas carol concerts and welcoming atmosphere. Jane later visited her grandmother, Aletta de Villiers, at Helen House during the 1970s and recalls a cheerful environment where residents were well cared for.
“There was always the smell of delicious food cooking,” she says.
Bramley’s place in Rand Aid history
Bramley became part of Rand Aid’s history in 1960 when the organisation acquired the Bramley House and Cottage Scheme from the Johannesburg City Council.
A year later, Helen House was built to care for frail and bedridden residents. Over the following decades, the complex grew into a thriving community with cottages, flats, communal facilities, volunteer programmes and social activities.
Although ageing infrastructure led to the closure of the complex in 1996, its influence continues to be felt through the people whose lives it touched.
The Rand Aid connection keeps resurfacing
Decades after those childhood visits, both women found themselves returning to the Rand Aid family.
Jane moved to Inyoni Creek 12 years ago, and Adelle followed three years later. Today, they live next door to one another, sharing memories that stretch back nearly 70 years. “It always brings joy travelling down memory lane,” says Adelle.
Remarkably, the Rand Aid connection has continued to appear in unexpected ways.
Many years before Inyoni was built, Jane visited Wedge Gardens seeking advice for a family member. “I remember standing in the dining hall and looking down at a little thatched-roof chapel.”
Twenty-five years later, when she and her husband visited their future home, she recognised a familiar landmark. “I could see the chapel I had seen years before when standing in the hall at Wedge Gardens,” she says.
Adelle experienced a similarly unlikely coincidence while attending a wedding recently in Israel. Seated next to a group of South Africans, she was introduced to former Elphin Lodge liaison manager Phyllis Phillips.
“I recognised the name but couldn’t place it,” Adelle recalls. “Then she told me she had worked at Elphin Lodge.”
The two spent the evening sharing stories and discovering how many people they knew in common through Rand Aid. “We had a lovely evening together exchanging memories,” says Adelle.
The encounter reinforced something both women have come to appreciate over the years: No matter where life takes them, Rand Aid connections have a way of resurfacing.
Coming home
Looking back, Adelle believes Bramley’s success came from its openness.
“It was home from home,” she says. “There were no walls and fences. People were part of the broader community.”
That same sense of belonging is what they value most about life at Inyoni Creek today.
“Rand Aid is an incredible place,” says Adelle. “We know people throughout the village, and everyone greets everyone.”
Jane agrees.
“Older people need to feel useful and connected,” she says. “There are so many activities here that you can be as involved as you want to be.”
For the two neighbours, the story that began with Friday visits to Bramley House has become something much bigger than a childhood memory. It is a reminder that the values Rand Aid was founded on 123 years ago – community, dignity and human connection – continue to bring people together generations later.
* Adelle says friends in her circle have been sharing memories of Rand Aid’s early days – stories that make for fascinating reading. Feel free to share your own memories at cathy@allycats.co.za
Inyoni Creek residents Adelle Rogoff and Jane Brown take a trip down memory lane.
Adelle Rogoff and Jane Brown at Inyoni Creek.
Adelle Rogoff (seated on chair) when she was a Bramley Primary School pupil in the late 1950s.
Jane Brown, photographed as a Bramley Primary School pupil in 1958.
Jane Brown with her grandmother Aletta de Villiers and Aletta’s great-granddaughter, Jennifer, at Helen House in 1976.
Inyoni Creek resident Adelle Rogoff and former Elphin Lodge liaison manager Phyllis Phillips met for the first time at a wedding in Israel, where they discovered shared Rand Aid connections and memories.
