My Neighborhood Watch #70 - Reporting Events Around us

I usually hear people say... Is this not the person I saw yesterday? Why would you say he's dead? I saw him yesterday. I used to believe these were mere sayings until death made me an eyewitness of such. How painful is your sting, death? So painful that it struck the hardest bone in my body.

It's not as if it's quite abnormal for someone to die, but the way death chooses to come and the form it takes leaves many with the question, Why? Last month, I lost two close friends in death, and these deaths were so painful.

• One died at the age of 19 by a seemingly small typhoid he overlooked as normal, though medications were taken.

• A friend of mine lost his sister in death through an accident that happened after his own wedding.

Quite devastating, not so? These weren't really close friends; that's why I didn't really feel the sting compared to what I'm about to narrate. It's quite normal for us to die, as we all inherited sin and death from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Nowadays, people don't die old again.

They die young, leaving their old parents, who are praying for death but can't find or see. Throughout this year, all the deaths I've attended are deaths of young people, and nobody knows who's next, as unforeseen occurrences or circumstances may strike at any time.

The most painful sting of death was experienced on Saturday, 12th November, 2024, which is roughly 4 days ago. I doubt I'll be able to forget this death—the death of someone who reasoned life with me before home died. This is the narrative.

Lying in the comfort of my bed was poor me, fiddling with my phones due to a lack of physical work. As I was busy engrossed in my phone, I received a call from my sister, who told me my friend is dead. I told her to clean her mouth quickly and she refused to believe. I ended the call on her for saying such rubbish things.

I nearly thought she was mad because this was someone I chatted with who didn't sound sick, Thursday last week. I then left what I was doing to prove my sister wrong. How can she say such? I was in disbelief. I messaged him on WhatsApp and even called but wasn't responding.

	My last chat with him

I then flipped through some people's status to see if there was any trace or news related to that my sister told me of. I then saw the status of my friend who spoke in parables but used the picture as the front. I didn't want to believe that, especially with someone so close to me. I had to wait to confirm from others, and behold, it was true.

See someone I spent life talking about life. He's now gone to the grave. What do I say? We've barely been this close, but we've had the best of moments. I was his mentor on crypto, and now, no more mentorship. Is it a crime to be close to someone without feeling pain?

He died a very spiritual man, and his relationship with God was his very own priority. He had a wife but no children, and this wife seemed to be the luckiest because I've not seen anything other men love their wives the way this man loved his wife. They were like brothers and sisters. Worst of it all is that his mother is currently grieving the husband, who lost his life earlier this year.

How sad? Who knows how she might respond to the news that her only responsible son is dead? It won't sound any funny. He was about to bury his father next month when this terrible thing happened. The wife needs our comfort and consolation. In as much as we have hope, we won't cry as the faithless but as those with faith in the resurrection hope for a better future.

This happened a day after the death of my friend. A close friend of mine got robbed in his house, leaving the children with the most traumatic experience of their lives. They were robbed in such a devastating way that even the so-called vigilante couldn't do anything about it. The wife got shot on the leg as their plans were to kill the man, but she intervened and got herself shot in the process. Laptops were taken, credentials, phones and other valuables. About 14 robbers robbed that compound with guns and machetes. How terrible such experience must have been.!

How patient is our creator? To all those who have lost their loved one in the dead, whether young or old, there's a hope that one day he or she will be brought back to life in perfect health. This hope is what has been keeping me moving in life

Cc,
@xkool24

I invite @ngoenyi, @whizzbro4eva and @basil20