There is a saying that posits that we never know the value of what we have until we lose it. People abandon their families and friends to pursue material pleasure, which plunge them into major problems. I happened to witness this claim through one of my neighbor’s daughters.
In our village, there lived a husband and his wife who were blessed with four daughters. The husband and wife worked hard to bring up their daughters. They made sure they gave them comfortable life and education. Besides, they brought up their daughters under a religious background. Everyone in the village praised the daughters. Indeed, other parents would refer to these daughters when reprimanding theirs. The husband and wife always prayed that Allah would bless the daughters with caring husbands.
As time went on, Allah answered their prayers. The daughters grew up, and rich and loving husbands married them. Every daughter went her way leaving the parents sad. On the other hand, the parents were happy that their daughters got married to religious and loving husbands.
The daughters could visit their parents from time to time, and by their physical appearance, one could tell that they were happy in their marriages. One of the daughters was blessed with three children. Together with her husband, they worked hard to ensure that their children lived a comfortable life. The daughter secured a job in a local hospital to help her husband in providing for the three children. Her husband was compassionate, and he always encouraged her to devote her energy to serving people in the hospital.
As the daughter continued working in the hospital, life in the family started changing. Prior to her employment, they would eat together as a family and the daughter ensured that the children did not go to sleep before doing their homework. However, after being employed, she started to abdicate her duties, one by one.
She no longer shared a meal with the family. In addition, she could occasionally come home late and claim that she had a lot of work at the hospital. Since her husband loved and trusted her, he believed in all that she said. The husband did not know that his wife was in love with a young workmate.
The wife used to go out with her new love and that was why she arrived home late. This went on for several months, until the husband felt that their family was disintegrating gradually. He decided to speak with his wife to see if she could quit her job and dedicate her time to the family. The wife refused to quit her job claiming that she would be bored to spend all of her time at home doing nothing. However, she agreed that she would try to come home early. She also promised to get some time to spend with the children.
Despite their agreement, nothing changed and the wife started coming home even later than she used. The husband started doubting her, and he decided to investigate what was happening to his wife. He talked to one of the workers from the hospital who informed him that his wife was in love with a workmate and that they always left the hospital together.
The husband loved his wife and children, and he was not ready to see his family fall apart. Hence, that evening, the wife came home late as usual. She wanted to go to bed direct claiming that she had a highly busy day. However, the husband told her that they had a serous issue to discuss.
He told her that he was aware of her relationship with a workmate. However, the wife denied being in a relationship with a workmate. They quarreled for a while, and when the husband learnt that his wife would not admit the allegations, he decided to rest the issue.
The following day was on a Friday and the family use to go to mosque together. However, on this day, the wife complained of stomachache. They left her in the house and on returning home from prayers, she was already gone. She left her family, parents, and children and eloped with her young lover.
They escaped to another county where no one could find them. The husband informed her family about the incidence and they started looking for her immediately. They searched the entire country starting with the major cities but she was nowhere to be found. They reported the issue to the authority, which also searched for their daughter without any success. Days changed into weeks and weeks into months without hearing from the daughter.
Fortunately, the daughter and her young man did not secure a job in the foreign country and when they were about to exhaust the money they had carried, the daughter decided to call her parents and see if they could support her. The parents told her that they were ready to support her under the condition that she goes back to her family and apologise to the husband. However, she was not ready to go back to her family.
The parents declined to support her forcing the daughter and her man to look for a job. It was hard to get a job since their travel documents indicated that they were in the country for vacation. They exhausted the money that they had, and life became hard for the two.
After several months, they started to disagree over minor issues. The young man started to blame the daughter for their predicament. One morning, he woke up, and without saying anything, he packed his belongings and left. The daughter tried to plead with him, but he was determined to leave.
After realising that things did not work as she expected the daughter called her family to inform them that she was particularly sorry and willing to come back. She called her parents too, but no one was ready to accept her back. Life became unbearable for her in the foreign country. She could not afford to buy food, leave alone to pay for her accommodation. She had a happy family but she ruined it through her stupidity.
She had no alternative but to come up with a way to cater for her food and accommodation. She opted to join prostitution, as that was the only job that did not require a work permit. Unfortunately, she contracted a fatal disease, which landed her into the hospital. After the doctors found that she was about to die, they contacted her parents who came for her. However, she died on their way back home.