President's Report - Gordon State College

45
President’s Report
A Friend in Need…
Is a Friend Indeed
After many trips to two different hospitals, emergency rooms and doctors, and
after new problems piling up day after day, Linda Hanner, alone in a hospital
waiting room, had finally reached her breaking point.
She had just left her husband Bob’s room for the waiting
room down the hall at Emory in Atlanta, where she sat
down and started sobbing after the doctor informed her
that he still had an infection and that the medication was
causing problems with his kidneys. Compounding this bad
news was news that her 97-year-old father was ill, and he
lived an hour away in Barnesville.
To say the least, she was torn, emotionally and geographically.
“I just couldn’t take more,” she said. “The tears had
to flow.”
So she sat in the waiting room, crying and praying for
a friend, even as strangers walked by her with their morning
coffees.
“I knew Bob would start wondering where I was, so
I got up and walked to the waiting room door, just as a
lady was about to enter,” Hanner said. When she saw the
woman smile at her, she was overcome again. She turned
back into the room, sat down, hung her head and cried.
“Through my tears,” Hanner said, “I saw that someone
was standing in front of me, and then I heard the sweetest
voice say, ‘Is there anything I can do for you’”
“No,” Hanner said. “I’m just upset because my husband
has been here for two weeks, and now my 97-yearold
daddy in Barnesville is sick.”
“Barnesville” the other woman said, “I’m from
Barnesville.”
In disbelief, Hanner asked, “Who are you”
When Hanner heard the name Paquita Mansour, she
jumped up and started hugging the woman, and while
laughing through her tears, she said, “I’m Linda Ann.”
This time it was Mansour’s turn for disbelief. She had
known “Linda Ann” for years, but did not recognize her. As
Hanner explained, she and Mansour knew each other as girls
in Barnesville, but it had been years since the two of them
had seen each other. Even so, the two of them often had
phone conversations. Hanner worked with Mansour’s former
classmate Kathy Matthews, and so when Mansour would
call for Kathy, she often ended up speaking with Linda Ann.
Because Mansour’s mother was being treated on the
same floor as Hanner’s husband, the two women had been
unknowingly crossing each others’ paths for three days. Only
after Hanner prayed for a friendly face did Mansour appear.
“So, next time you smile at someone,” Hanner said, “at
our age, Class of ’64, you never know who might be smiling
at you and opening a big blessing.”
Midgie Coddington, Paquita Mansour, Linda Ann Hanner, and Bob
Hanner on the patio of the alumni house during Alumni Weekend.