Well, at least he told it to you like it was! They really don't make 'em" like that anymore!
He reminds me of the GP I grew up with at the beach! Direct,2 the point,no computers,& he knew a lot about everything. like your Doc, he didn't sugarcoat (pardon the pun) a darn thing!
When I was 4, he stitched my face up w/ black thread and told my parents to relax, keep my face covered from the sun,& rub coco butter on it twice a day. He kept a picture of a cancerous lung at a child's eye view and when I asked about it, he told it to me straight. I never wanted to smoke after that. @ 16 & 5 weeks before the Jr Prom, he sat me down, looked me straight in the eye,and told me "I had the worst damn case of the Chicken Pox he'd seen in over 50 some years of being a GP". Not what I wanted to hear, but I appreciated the honesty!
He also told me as long as I exercised & ate reasonably, my diabetes wouldn't get the best of me. "It will annoy you, but it wont get the best of you." Like I said, a really smart guy.
k2

Hi Kelly. I'll take a straight-forward, "just the facts" kind of doc anyday. The picture in the article masks his great sense of humor that was always there at least once during every office visit.

Nice article on Dr. MacDonald! You're so right about his straight-forwardness and humor. I remember once I went to see him when I had some intestinal trouble, and he summed up my litany of symptoms by saying, "So you've got the trots, huh?" Comically succint, albeit not the most opportune time for a forceful laugh. . .

Most important in this article, however, is what the doctor had to say about many adolescents' attitudes towards the elderly. When teaching young students, I always made clear to them the importance of listening to what older people had to say, and encouraged them to ask questions of the elderly. As I told my students, we all need to remember this of those older than ourselves: They have been where we can never go, and they have seen what we will never see. When they are gone, this knowledge goes with them unless we privilege ourselves with their stories and insights while they are still able to share them.

Incredibly wonderful gems, whether people, places or things, are frequently found in small, rural areas. Doctor MacDonald certainly seems to be a gem of human being.