One humid evening, Laurette walked into her apartment, immediately she stepped into her sitting room, she was shocked to see Diana, her best friend hunched over the settee in her living room sobbing.
“What’s going on Diana, why are you crying?” Laurette asked as she dropped everything with her on a nearby couch, the question only intensified the sobbing.
“Talk to me, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong.” Laurette gently prodded.
“Mark wants a divorce, he said I’m cheating on him with my job” Diana said in between sobs.
Laurette sat beside her on the settee, “Diana, stop crying and look at me. You are very blessed to have a man who loves you to the envy of other women, he goes out of his way to be a husband to you, but instead You ignore him, you come back very late, you don’t take care of him, you even postponed having a child all in the name of a job. There is nothing wrong in working but there is everything wrong in not finding a balance. This is your fifth year of marriage, you have always been like the iron fist in a velvet glove and its admirable but you have to find a balance before you wake up one day and find yourself alone with a job that has sucked the life out of you and you have lost what’s important which is love, family and friends.”
"But Laureate, what do you want me to do? Resign my job?"
"Diana, you have to sit down and organize your priorities so you don't wake up one day and regret. Can't you learn from what happened with me? I almost lost my husband until I had a wake up call. A word is enough oh. I have a box of tissues when you come crying. But I hope not."
Diana was lost in thought.
-Victoria Ukpaka