Brothers In Arms

Kevin Cullen: BURLINGTON – They were brothers, and they grew up in a small, white house, on a small side street, in a section of town the locals call The Flats.

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Mark MacDonald couldn't hear, so his parents and siblings were his ears.

Greg MacDonald learned many things from his big brother, Mark, but if he learned anything it was patience. He saw so much more in the brother whom other people dismissed as handicapped.

The doctors said Mark wouldn't be able to ride a two-wheel bicycle. But Mark sped around the neighborhood on a two-wheeler like everybody else. Mark could read lips, and he could carry on long conversations with those, like his family, who could sign. Mark just wanted to be treated like everybody else.

Mark made Greg see the world differently, and in high school Greg volunteered to teach disabled kids how to swim.