[ WP ] Write about something that is disgusting or ugly in such a way that it becomes something beautiful -- without using the 'beautiful inside ' cliche .

I had always felt him towering over me, even when I could stare level at his eyes I always had to look up to see him. His booming voice and confidence had filled a room like water poured into a coffin. His impatience, his callousness and his blows had always scared me, had kept me a creeping shadow in what people told me was my home. 
 
 The disease had ripped through his body like wildfire. His once imposing stature crumpled up like used paper and casually tossed in the hospital bed. The tubes, the machines, the smell of disinfectant, the white, it all seemed so unnatural. He had been a proud man, but no man is proud when he needs help to even sit up. 
 
 I had always seen my father as a god, a cruel god, but a god none the less. With all the tubes and the needles and the doctors it was inevitable, the humanity came spilling out of him. As much as I tried not to see it, as much as I searched for the man who I had vowed never to forgive, I couldn ’ t help but see just a man. 
 
 A sad man. 
 
 A sick man. 
 
 A regretful man. 
 
 A man that wanted nothing more than to talk to the son he had never connected with. It was not a large request, nor an unreasonable one, but it was the hardest gift I have ever had to give. Forgiveness did not come easily, even then, even as he lay shriveled on the bed, wheezing his humanness, his fragility at me. It came, and with it came tears, and with the tears an entire childhood of grief. 
 
 But grief became understanding, and understanding became forgiveness 
 
 ***** 
 
 Feedback is highly encouraged and appreciated. Trying to become less shit of a writer one writing prompt at a time. 

