Ms. Sandra's Love

Ms. Sandra’s Love

As students push their way through the double doors into UGA’s Snelling Dining Commons, welcoming shouts of  “Come on in darlin.” “Hello sweet pea!” and “How are you doin boo?” ring through the air. At the cashier turnstile stands a short African-American woman clothed in an over-sized hunter green polo shirt, with embroidery reading “The University of Georgia” (complete with the arch logo), and “Food Services” below that in white lettering. On the opposite side, she wears a name badge that reads, “Ms. Sandra Patterson, Cashier-Snelling.”

She smiles broadly revealing a large, yet perfect gap between her two front teeth. Bangs hang just above her eyebrows, and her neatly combed hair is shoulder length. Snelling’s soul and many students mom-away-from-home, stands right in front of me sipping on cranberry juice from a UGA Food Services mug.

Raised by her father and grandmother, the South Carolina native has bittersweet memories of childhood with her nine sisters. She commends her father on a job well done. “He was one in a million,” she said.

 Her family relocated to Athens, Ga. when she was 6 years old. She was educated through the Athens-Clarke County school system and graduated from Clarke Central High School in 1978. “I was pretty much a quiet girl,” she said. “Because there was so many of us, I didn’t get to do much.”

Ms. Sandra began her adult life at the age of 18, when she got married. At the time, she was working at a children’s daycare center. She somberly remembers coming out of work for three years to care for her newborn. When she went back to work, reporting though to a different place.

“When I first started here, I wasn’t a cashier,” she said. I was on the main line and a salad maker.”

She moved around campus a bit to The Bulldog Café and other campus eateries. She came back to Snelling though, “because this was home,” she said pointing passionately to table we sat at.

Speaking of the “home” suddenly makes her cheeks perk up and eyes brighten as she states that she’s the proud mother of three and a grandmother to five. “I love children” she said, “that’s my main focus.”

Ms. Sandra says her love for children is “probably because my mom died when I was small and who ever takin’ care of you, they don’t take care of you like mom.”  Looking downward yet smiling, she said, “that’s probably part of my life I’m missing, so I try to take it up now, and give. And I enjoy it too.”

Giving is the most important part of Ms. Sandra’s cashier position.  She works Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. most days, including some Saturdays. On average, she greets 2,400 students a day, according to the Executive Director of Food Services, J. Michael Floyd.  Ms. Sandra beams joy into student’s lives daily with her upbeat personality and warm greetings. She gets that joy “from God.” “He’s the one keeping me happy [and] making sure I have it in me to give out to others.”

Students pass through the turnstiles and immediately she reigns them in for a hug. Not one person walks by Ms. Sandra without being touched emotionally or hugged physically. Some students even stop to share their problems such as, “I’m not getting A’s Ms. Sandra,” in which she replies, “uh ah, we can’t have that,” and proceeds to examine the problem further.

She’s more than a cashier to most students at UGA, including a recent alum, Chris LeCraw, creator of the Facebook group, “I love Sandra the Snelling Dining Hall Lady” which now has 3,149 members. Respect and appreciation for Ms. Sandra runs deep through bulldog blood. “No matter how I felt before entering Snelling, I couldn’t help but walk away feeling happier after seeing Ms. Sandra,” he said.  He remembers, she “would ask me about my classes, how I was feeling, girls I was dating, etc.” LeCraw is just one of the many students who formed a friendship with Ms. Sandra over the years he spent here at UGA.

 Tim Felz, a fifth year senior from Augusta, Ga. will always have fond memories of Ms. Sandra. Felz recently invited Ms. Sandra to attend a Phi Slam party, a Christian organization he is affiliated with. Ms. Sandra went to the party, and according to Felz, not only danced the night away, but also called out students by name to compliment them on their dance moves. Felz said he’s gone through various phases while in college, but has always felt loved and encouraged by Ms. Sandra. Felz also said that  he noticed Ms. Sandra treated other students with “the same genuineness and authenticity that she did me.”

Floyd spoke of UGA alumnus memories pertaining to Ms. Sandra: “when they think of their four years at UGA, they’ll remember Ms. Sandra because she’s the lady at Snelling that made them feel at home.” Floyd also notices that, “it’s the joy that her customers show her, that is her paycheck.” Ms. Sandra is not only appreciated by the study body for her loving character, but also by her coworkers at Snelling.

Although unnoticed formally as part of University of Georgia’s desegregation movement, Ms. Sandra is one of the biggest contributors to change for the good.  She has been a Snelling employee for 22 years, Ms. Sandra has never let an opportunity to greet students pass her by. The instant she lays eyes on a student, she begins to care for them as her own, regardless of their race, color, ethnicity or creed.  “She looks past appearance,” said Felz.

Ms. Sandra’s self-made goal is to “make sure everybody feels comfortable so they’ll want to stay here.” Through her hugs, kisses and warm phrases, she offers the UGA student body a most unusual love, a blind love. Succinctly put by Felz, “at UGA, there’s a lady who loves all, and her name is Ms. Sandra.”