The Silence of Our Friends

Growing up as a child, I did not understand what it meant to have a friend all I knew was play, dance and shout with my neighbours, I began to understand the true meaning of the word ‘friend’ when I got into secondary school. Like any other kind of relationship, friendship can be lost within our lives due to neglect or anger or, sometimes, simply circumstances. However it is lost, we often lose a part of ourselves that can never quite be recovered.

A friend of many years who was closer than anything to you could leave and you will never hear from that friend again, such silence sometimes we take for granted and ignore thinking he or she just want to be left alone. Sometimes you have a friend and you always think and know you would never be separated. Maybe you thought wrong because the wind of life could blow you to a different destination, and give you a different situation which keeps you in silence. And when our statuses change, we then forget those we used to share our pains and laughter with.

There are so many stories I still want to tell and share, and I long for my lost friends.
There are many tears I left not shed, because I had no shoulder to cry on. I miss our long talks and gossips, our hilarious laughter’s and naughty jokes on people .

I thought we would forever be best of friends. When one fell to the ground the other one was there to help her back up. We healed our broken hearts with a hug and a gentle smile. We stayed up most nights watching movies and giggling like little girls while having midnight talks and of course we only had to gist about the guys we fancied. We never thought we would one day say our good-byes only for it to become the very last. I never thought that the usual hug would be the very last. I took you for granted and thought you were always there and alas too late you were already gone. I have searched for you and hope to find you someday.

To all my friends, kindly check up on your other friends, for you may not know if they might still be in existence. Your change in status is not an excuse to neglect and ignore those who stood by you during trying times, for no one knows the direction of the wind of Life, from where it comes and where it will take us to.

This piece is dedicated to Georgina Okeke-Okonkwo, I took things for granted thinking you were there all along and busy with your home and baby as usual, but I was wrong, and it was devastating to know that you passed on to eternity December 31st 2009. It was gross negligence on my part not to check on you but to hear of your death in April 2010. May your Soul Rest in Peace.

To my lost friends. I don’t know where they are now, but I hope I find them alive and well someday LesleyAnn Kingsley, and Fortune Nsirim.

Martin Luther King Junior once said that in the end we remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.