Ruth McLain (M.D.) – Johnstone is the Medical Director of Old Colony Hospice, West Bridgewater, MA since 1978. I am working now with Hospice and Palliative Care patients and families since closing my office practice of Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Geriatrics, in 2001. From hometown of St. Louis, MO, I attended the University of Missouri Medical School, Columbia, MO. Further training at University of Connecticut and Tuft’s Medical Center.

I have been a visiting physician yearly at SRHF since 2004. I enjoyed having my grandsons, at age 11 years (3 times) and age 14 once, and their father twice, visit the clinic. We spend the week working with patients, playing with the children, hiking the mountains, visiting family’s homes and preparing a meal for the orphanage. It’s a very different and eye opening experience from our usual lives. It’s a privilege to experience the community, seeing children now grown, new homes, now electricity and flowing COLD water for showers.

Now in the Boston area when a Haitian American sees the Haitian flag in my car window they always thank me for the work that I am doing for their country. I expound on the water, education, agriculture, goat projects, all that is being done besides health. Thanks is the best reward for what SRHF does.