The one friendship that made a difference

I am someone that rarely needs other people’s help. Okay, not that I don’t, but I find it difficult to ask for it. Rather, I make myself available wherever there’s a person in need. This trait, I’ve noticed I’ve had since high school, and should I say I’ve been taken advantage of? Well, maybe not. I was just doing my thing.

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In high school boarding school, I was everyone’s go-to person when they needed help. Not financially because I didn’t have the capacity to render help in such cases, but there’s one way I’ve always helped. I wasn’t even a member of the Red Cross society, but I made sure no one ever fell ill and was left uncared for.

In cases of emergency, I was the first point of contact. The seniors and juniors knew my bed was the hospital when they were ill. They definitely would find abundant care that would gradually lead to their healing there even if it needed that we go to the hospital, I was just one bike away from embarking on the thirty minutes trip to the hospital. I remember one of the seniors wanted to make me her school daughter because of the way I cared for her when she was ill.

It wasn’t much of a problem for me. It was just a responsibility that I decided to take up. However, I almost lost it when one day this illness struck me. It was probably an accumulation of stress plus malaria or typhoid, I don’t know what it was, but it was a terrible illness for me. I couldn’t eat nor drink and medications wouldn’t stay in my body. I vomited all of it.

At first, one person attended to me for a day, and left. “My body temperature was too hot for her to manage”, she said. Was I shocked? Yes, I was, but I didn’t think much of it until every other person that would come into my room to see me would only feel my temperature and would say “sorry” after which they would leave.

“So, after all my services to all of you, this is what I deserve?” I asked myself while I was under the wrapper shaking like a chicken that was rain drenched. At some point, the tears dropped heavily, and I was sniffing at interval. I was only able to stop the tears when my eyes were swollen, and the headache felt like my head would fall off.

When I couldn’t bear it anymore, I struggled to meet the housemistress for a chance to call my parents so they could pick me up. I knew my parents wouldn’t show up immediately because it was quite a distance, but when my dad heard my voice over the phone, he sent someone over from town to take me to the hospital immediately. I hardly fall ill, so he knew it was either I get to the hospital, or it was going to get worse. So, I was at the hospital for a week after which I returned to the hostel.

Many years later after I graduated high school and was in the university, I had a similar occurrence. It happened a few months after the corona virus pandemic was over. I thought I was going to be another case of the virus, but I wasn’t. However, it was something serious.

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Prior to this time, I had met Hakeem. He was a year ahead of me in the university, but we clicked like we had known each other for a teen number of years. I helped with the so many projects he embarked on while in school and helped him prepare for some presentations.

He lost his mum before he even gained admission to school, but he wouldn’t stop talking about her. Whenever he did, it was always a sour experience for him, but I was there to help him feel better always. His friendship is one I’ve not had in a very long time. Well, he finally graduated and I thought that was the end, but Hakeem showed that it wasn’t.

A year after he had left school, I was in my finals. Then, I got hit by this illness that I didn’t understand. I could neither move my legs, nor talk properly. I had seizures at intervals and many other symptoms that the doctors didn’t understand what the cause was.

On One of those episodes, I fainted. When I opened my eyes, I was already at the hospital and there was Hakeem sitting by my bedside looking at me as if he was praying that I didn’t die in my sleep. I looked at him and smiled. Later, I heard the doctor saying "the bills had been cleared by Hakeem" when my parents came to pick me up from the hospital. Oh, it was Hakeem that called them when he wasn’t sure of what to do next.

Actually, it was shocking to me to see that I could see someone stay by me at that moment of my life. I was not used to getting such treatment from friends, but Hakeem showed a difference.

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