I met Stella in my former estate here in Lagos state Nigeria. She and her family lived just behind my apartment. Whenever she passes by, she would always greet me with a smile. Stella is a beautiful woman, married with 4 kids. Her regular greetings to me wherever she sees me got me attracted to her and I went closer and discovered that she is not only beautiful outward but inward as well. Stella is such a humble, kind, respectful, and caring woman and that made me love her more. She is older than me in age and marriage yet, her level of respect and humility is worthy of emulation.

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Our friendship started the day she invited my family and me to her home for her child's birthday party. We honored the invitation and I could see the level of excitement in her. The next day, I decided to visit her alone for the first time and she revealed to me how she has been admiring my personality. Wow, I was surprised to hear that from her. I liked her simplicity too and her wisdom. There was no day we met without learning one thing from her, she is endowed with wisdom and she is so patient. I was that woman who is always worried, and impatient over so many things but Stella gave me words of wisdom that made me see the need for worrying less and grabbing patience as a virtue.

Sometime in January 2020, I was pregnant with my last child, and my family and I needed to relocate to another area still in Lagos. _{If you have relocated from one location to another with properties, you will understand the stress that is usually involved}. I thought of how to pack all our family luggage with pregnancy and I knew it wasn't going to be easy for me considering how busy my husband can be. I was sitting on my sofa when I heard a knock at the gate, I peeped and saw Stella. I welcomed her and we got talking, I informed her of our sudden relocation and how I am not finding it easy to start packing our loads. She immediately blamed me for not calling on her when such an update came up. She asked if she can begin immediately helping out and I said yes. Stella didn't want me to bend down to pick any properties, she would always stop me if I try to assist her. In her words, she said, "please do not stress that unborn child while I am here". She made sure to pack every single thing inside the big vehicle we hired, and placed a call to her husband informing him that she will take a longer time before returning home. Hmmm, I was wowed by her assistance to me.

As if that wasn't enough, she took transport to visit my new location the next day to help out in arranging the properties in my new home. I couldn't help but kept thanking her. After one month after our relocation, I had complications in pregnancy. Every pregnant woman has an amniotic fluid that keeps the baby safe until birth. This water should only drop when a woman is in labor otherwise place the unborn child at risk. My water started leaking and my doctor was so uncomfortable with the situation. At 6 months of pregnancy? And I am having such an issue? Doctor after the scan placed on bed rest till I gave birth. That means 3 good months without going anywhere. My husband is always busy and couldn't assist with everything. I called Stella to update her on my present situation and she felt bad about it. She said I shouldn't hesitate to open up to her each time I need an assistant.

Considering the far distance we now stay with each other, I didn't want to bother her much but willingly, she was always coming around to help me buy foodstuffs in the market, cook for me and get so many soups and stews preserved in my freezer. Buying all the items for my delivery was still Stella. It's either she is in my house assisting or she is in her home calling to be sure that I am fine.

When I finally gave birth, she didn't hesitate to come home and assisted me as usual. Despite all her sacrifice during my pregnancy with complications, she still presented a huge gift 🎁 with money for my newborn baby. Our friendship later made our husbands to be friends as well. Her show of kindness towards me proved to me that true friends still exist and I learned a lot from her actions. Our friendship has been waxing stronger even with the distance presently. Two days back, I visited her in her home and it was a nice meet-up as usual learning from her well of wisdom.

This is my entry to the inkwell creative-non-fiction prompt.

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