Hanaa Zidan

1951 - 2025

HANAA ZIDAN

March 6, 1951 - July 28, 2025

Indeed, to our Creator we belong and to our Creator we return. With deep grief and acceptance, our family bears witness to the return of Hanaa Zidan, our most beloved matriarch, to our Most Merciful Creator. On July 28, 2025, Hanaa Zidan passed away in the embrace and prayers of her loved ones at the Toledo Hospital.

Hanaa, the eldest of five siblings, was born in Zagazig, Egypt, to Hamed Zidan and Zeinab Kafafy. She graduated from Al Azhar University in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in English. She was married to the loving Dr. Adnan Zeyadah for 47 years, with whom she raised Ramez, Rossol, and Rana. She nurtured many beloved grandchildren, including Rokayah, Khadija, Ali, Anas, Layla, Moaz, Misk, Yosr, and Salam. She also tended to many nieces, nephews, cousins, and pets.

In Arabic, Hanaa means joy, and Zidan means abundance. Hanaa Zidan embodied her name in every way, providing us with abundant joy through her gentle spirit, boundless generosity, and community activism.

Khalto Hanaa ("Auntie Hanaa") lived on Evergreen Road. Evergreen as in remaining, lasting, relevant. Given her youthful essence and persistent popularity, such was a fitting name for the street that hosted her peaceful abode. Her door was always open to others-literally. She left her front door unlocked with a soft light turned on to brighten the entryway. Our younger American sensibilities regularly protested this and we asked her to lock her door. She affirmed our concerns but continued this practice, indicating how important it was for her to remain accessible to her loved ones at all times.

Indeed, anyone who visited Khalto Hanaa knows that there were usually other visitors in her home. Those seeking counsel, collaboration, or simply companionship. She was chosen family to so many (as evident by the multitudes of people who came to honor her funerary rights on a warm Tuesday in July). Even after leaving Khalto Hanaa's home, the fragrant aroma of her bukhoor incense could cling to your clothes for hours later. Evergreen.

Khalto Hanaa moved to Toledo during her golden years to be closer to her sister and daughter. Many people who move to a new place after retirement might choose to slow down and turn inwards. Not Khalto Hanaa. As a recent immigrant and elder, she was eager to plant new seeds imbued with the lessons of the lives she lived. She found an organizing home at the Toledo Muslim Community Center, where, for years she directed Sunday school for young students, organized dynamic summer camps for children, welcomed newcomers, and served as a member of the Board of Trustees. But Khalto Hanaa's reach was beyond any single organization, and she cultivated sincere and consistent relationships with people from all walks of life wherever she went.

Khalto Hanaa was a woman of multitudes. When she wasn't making jars of delectable home-made fruit jams or savory pickled vegetables to gift to others, she was busy on her phone being a star matchmaker, matching people looking for new roommates, apartments, and yes, romantic life partners. She built a reputation as a wise, well-connected, and gentle leader. She cared deeply about upholding the communal rights and obligations of others, especially the marginalized. People looking to offer their monetary sadaqa or zakat often turned to Khalto Hanaa to facilitate this, understanding that she was both a reliable liaison and someone with an intimate pulse on community members' needs. To that end, she dedicated much energy to the equitable distribution of resources in her communities. Every Eid, she made sure to responsibly collect and then distribute monies and foods to local families. She did this with the utmost sense of sacred trust, maintaining people's dignity and privacy in the process. Even as she severely struggled through kidney failure and dialysis over the last five years, she continued to listen and look out for others, connecting them to the support and care they sought.

In her final days at the hospital, when Khalto Hanaa was very sick, there was a short period where, after coming off a ventilator, we thought that she was getting better. That this latest medical emergency was coming to a close. That we could soon take her back to her home on Evergreen where the trace of oud incense still lingered in her absence. Accordingly, our family began discussing and making arrangements for Khalto Hanaa to leave the hospital. While we spoke at full speed about the logistics of what would come next in terms of her care and recovery, Khalto's heart was elsewhere. She asked us to pause everything, and first help her offer sadaqa (mutual aid donation) in solidarity with the families of Gaza enduring relentless bombardment and a manufactured famine.

Khalto Hanaa's health did not get better after all, and she did not return to her home. But she did make her sadaqa, and that was what she wanted.

May we become elders and ancestors of integrity like Khalto Hanaa. Our dear Khalto Hanaa, please rest. We adore you and yearn for your presence. Your life in this realm was an evergreen bloom, one that will allow us to continue to reap endless spiritual and emotional rewards. May you experience divine abundant joy in the next realm with the Creator.

To honor Hanaa Zidan, please remember her in your prayers. In lieu of flowers, you can donate to the below causes focused on ending food insecurity:

The Sameer Project: Deliver Food, Water & Other Distributions in North Gaza

Sudanese Diaspora Network: Distribute Food Packages to Families in Cairo

Islamic Food Bank of Toledo: Fight Food Insecurity in Northwest Ohio