Earlier this afternoon, I called up one of my close friends who lives not far from me to check on her and to catch up. Her phone rang but she did not answer. This, mind you, is quite unhabitual for her so I decided to send a whatsapp message. That is when I discovered she hadn’t been sending her daily “Morning Tea” messages neither had she read or responded to any of mine…in over 1 week

I felt my heart tighten like it had been clasped by frozen hands – and I thought “No, God, NOOO!! Not again!!!!

Just a week ago, I got the still very painful news of the death of my dear friend Dr Dapo Williams.

And I started to weep uncontrollably while I quickly got dressed and flew out of my house. And like a fox with it’s tail set on fire, and ran all the way to her house. Praying and weeping all the way.

On getting to her door, I stopped and said a quick prayer “God, please I cannot go through this again. Last weekend is still pretty fresh and raw”!
I gingerly knocked on my friend’s door and within 10 seconds, it opened.

The sheer relief at seeing my friend as she appeared at the door weakened me so much that I simply slumped to the floor and wept with gratitude.

COVID has placed us all on tenterhooks and with the almost daily occurrence of losing dear friends, many of us are becoming so paranoid. My friend had just dropped her phone in water and although she had had it replaced, she was having problems reloading her whatsapp on her new phone so no messages or calls were getting through on the app…
Nevertheless, I should have tried her number on the direct line….. Duh

But still, we must check on each other regularly and not leave it till 1 week before we notice their absence.

We live in different times and we must cultivate new habits. It is not only enough waiting for whatsapp or text messages from our friends and loved ones. We must now learn to check on people everyday – if possible, physically.

We must not wait till something terrible happens then we say “I only chatted with her 2 weeks ago…..”

BJ⚘