Duluth East’s Rhett McDonald Talks COVID-19 Impact on Grandfather’s Passing

McDonald spoke about how dismissive some people are when they see COVID-19 statistics and say that it's mostly impacting the elderly population.

DULUTH, Minn. – Last week, the Northland lost a legend as longtime Chisholm basketball coach Bob McDonald passed away at the age of 87. His death came almost a month after he had contracted COVID-19 during his stay at an assisted living facility in Hibbing. McDonald’s grandson Rhett talked about the impact the pandemic had on his grandfather and their family.

“If COVID wasn’t around, my grandfather would mostly likely still be living. The last six months would have been better with us going up to visit and going in to see him. The six months of this COVID era was very hard on him because people were so important to him and he just didn’t get that,” McDonald said.

McDonald also spoke about how dismissive some people are when they see COVID-19 statistics and say that it’s mostly impacting the elderly population.

“My plea would be to everyone just to be compassionate and to treat everyone’s grandfather or grandparent, living in an assisted living places, folks that are a little bit more vulnerable than others, to treat everyone as if it were your own because once it hits home, it’s a hard thing to swallow. It shouldn’t take the loss of a legendary high school coach for people to realize that this sickness, this disease, the pandemic is a truly awful thing,” said McDonald.