18/09/2025
When I got married and moved into my house , I was still very young, very small in stature, and very inexperienced about life. I met a woman, a bit elderly, maybe in her late 30s. From the very first day, she just didn’t like me. I had never met her before, never spoken to her, yet she treated me with so much hostilityy.
I grew up with a mother who never allowed us to go about visiting neighbors. We stayed in our lane. So minding my business was easy for me. But even that could not save me. This woman would bring her chair and sit right in front of my door. Sometimes I couldn’t even pass to cook in my kitchen outside.
Later on, another woman moved into our block. Before I even had the chance to know her, she joined forces with my neighbor. They became a team. If you’ve lived in the barracks, you’ll understand, some people sit together morning till night, dissecting others, full of bitternesss and gossippp. And even when I greeted this new woman, she would delay her response, like someone I had offended before.
I endured it quietly.But one day, everything changed.
I was inside my room when I heard loud screams, Make una help me! My pikin dey kpai ooo!At first, I didn’t even know where the voice was coming from, but it grew louder until I rushed out.
To my shock, it was the same new neighbor’s daughterjust 14 years old convulsinggg and faintingg right there. And those same friends she sat with daily? They stood there watching, whispering, even pinching each other to hold back from helping.
Without thinking, I rushed, carried the girl on my back from the third floor, ran down barefooted, and kept screaming for help. No taxi stopped. So I carried her on my back and ran all the way to MRS hospital.
By the time we got there, the doctor said, Thank God you brought her in early.She was placed on oxygen immediately.
It was only then I realized my shirt was worn inside out, I had no shoes on, my hair scattered, my whole body trembling.
But when her mother walked in and saw me, me, the same girl she refused to talk to sitting on the floor with her child, tears filled her eyes. She dropped to her knees and cried. The same friends who sat with her every day in gossipp did not even follow us to the hospital. They only waited for her to return, pretending to care.
That day taught me something I will never forget, see , your helpers are not your friends, and your friends are not your helpers.(not in all cases though )?
Some of you reading this have inherited other people’s enemies. You’ve joined alliances of hatredd without even knowing the full story. You’ve disliked people who never wronged you, simply because your friends told you to.
But life has a way of turning tables. The same person you despise may be the one God will send to rescue you when it matters most.
Be careful. Do not let anyone drag you into circles of gossipp, bitternessss, or hatreddd. The people you laugh with today may never lift a finger for you tomorrow. But the one you pushed aside may be the one God uses to save your life.
As for me, that day, God used me tiny, weak, and despised to preserve the life of a child. It was not by my strength. It was mercy.
So I say this to you today, be at peace with all men. Hatred profits nothing, but love can save lives.
