“I hated my father for a long time. He was an alcoholic. He...

“I hated my father for a long time. He was an alcoholic. He was abusive. And he abandoned our family when I was ten years old. My mother had to support seven children on her own. She worked as a housekeeper. My father remarried and became wealthy, but he never gave us a penny. Sometimes we went without food. But we survived. All of my brothers are grown and healthy. My father died recently, and in his final weeks he asked all seven of his sons to come visit him. Only two of us went. The rest were too angry. We mainly just talked about soccer and other small things. He never apologized for what he did. He still wasn’t the kind of person who could put his feelings into the world. But he cried the entire time. I had viewed him as a block of ice for so long. But he seemed human in that moment. He looked so vulnerable lying in his hospital bed. And at that moment I forgave him. Even if he didn’t ask me to.”

(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)