You don't know the value of what you have until you lose it

Greetings community, I had just gone through one of those stressful days in my life. I had a stressful day at work and just got home. I was so tired, and the only thing on my mind was to rest.

I had dinner, took a shower, and finally settled in bed. I decided to go through my Facebook news feed, and I noticed that I had some notifications that I left unattended to.

I clicked on the notifications and realized that Facebook had just notified me of the birthdays of some of my Facebook friends. I decided to check it out and saw a familiar name. It was also the birthday of one of my good friends.

This was a very good friend of mine. Let's call him Kay.

Kay and I had been friends for more than five years. We met each other on the Facebook platform, and we vibed along so well that we turned out to be great friends.

One of those days I traveled to Lagos, I made sure that I didn't leave Lagos without meeting him. We were that close.

Kay and I kept our communication going for a while. I must say, our friendship was blissful.

As time went on, our communication dwindled. Life happened. We stopped talking for months; once in a while, we'd reach out to each other.

There was a time his Facebook account got hacked, and he reached out to me with his new account. We talked for a while after then, and we stopped talking for a while again.

Meanwhile, seeing a notification for his birthday, I felt that was an avenue to reach out to him after losing communication with him for a while.

I clicked on his profile, and I was about to compose a birthday message for him. I decided to go through his profile to see the birthday posts that were made for him, and I received the greatest shock of my life.

This shock was the type that instantly brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't control it; the tears came pouring out. I couldn't help it. My sister was so shocked at my sudden outburst that she had to hold me in an embrace so I could calm down.

(One of those posts and conversations I found on his timeline)

Kay had been dead for two years before I found out! I saw a farewell post composed by one of his friends on his timeline. Apparently, he died after a brief illness.

(Our last conversation)

Oh my God! I cried. So many what-ifs popped into my mind. "What if I had made sure to check on him often?" Well, that might not have changed what happened, but it would have certainly made me feel better.

This particular event shook me and has taught me to make it a duty to always check on my loved ones, no matter what. I have learned to do so despite my busy schedule.

Particularly, this event has taught me that you don't know the value of something until you lose it. I certainly learned that in a hard way!

Thanks for coming to my blog!