If Nelson Mandela could forgive the people who jailed him in a barred cell for thirty years, surely I can forgive relatives who abandoned me to abuse, relatives who don't acknowledge the blood tie. If Mandela could walk out on a rugby field with a Springbok cap on, I can work on forgetting personal grievances, can reach out and send a card to a long-lost relation; if Mandela, alone in that barren cell, could fortify him with a poem, remind himself that he is the master of his fate and thank God for his unconquerable soul, I can find strength.