Community Will Celebrate Dr. Abraham’s Career
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The familiar white coat is coming off, but the friendships with patients remain. Dr. George Abraham retired June 30 after a 48-year medical career.
WATER VALLEY — After 48 years of practicing medicine, Dr. George Abraham says the hardest part about retirement isn’t finding something to do. It’s walking away from something he still loves.
“I’m already missing it,” Abraham said.
Abraham retired June 30 after spending the past decade with Yalobusha Health Services, caring for patients at Odom Rural Health Clinic, the Yalobusha County Hospital and nursing home. Before coming to Water Valley, he practiced family medicine for 38 years in his hometown of Vicksburg.
The decision to retire wasn’t driven by a loss of passion for medicine. It came after a stroke about a year and a half ago, surgery to restore blood flow through a blocked artery and the realization that age eventually changes every physician.
“It was time,” Abraham said. “As you get older, your mental sharpness is not what it used to be. I just didn’t want to make a mistake and hurt somebody.”
For Abraham, that decision reflected the same standard he carried throughout nearly five decades of medicine.
The move to Water Valley in 2016 had been driven largely by family. While Vicksburg had been home forever, children and grandchildren had gradually scattered, with several family members settling in the Oxford area.
A conversation with the late Dr. Paul Odom, a former Yalobusha Health Services physician, helped convince Abraham the move would be a good fit.
“It just worked out really well,” Abraham said.
The transition also introduced him to a different style of medicine.
In Vicksburg, Abraham practiced in a 170-bed hospital. Rural medicine required a different approach, carefully deciding which patients could be treated locally and which needed to be transferred for specialized care in Oxford, Tupelo or elsewhere.
“I really enjoyed being here in a smaller community,” he said.
Abraham said one of the greatest rewards of medicine has always been the relationships built over time.
Some former patients from Vicksburg continued making the drive to Water Valley for appointments after he started practicing here. Others simply stayed in touch.
Just days before his retirement, one longtime patient called to say she wanted to bring him one of her famous homemade cakes. She also brought her daughter — a physician completing medical training in Florida.
“I delivered her,” Abraham said with a smile. “That was more than 40 years ago.”
Moments like that reminded him of the privilege that comes with caring for families across generations.
“It is sort of unique to be in a position where you can help people,” he said.
Outside the clinic, Abraham and his wife, Ginny, became active in the community through church, friendships and Friday lunches at BTC Old-Fashioned Grocery. Retirement hasn’t changed that routine much, except now those Friday trips are often followed by physical therapy appointments instead of hospital rounds.
The couple also plans to spend more time traveling to visit their four children and 11 grandchildren.
Jessica Embry, administrator of Yalobusha Health Services, said Abraham leaves behind a legacy of service that will be remembered by both his patients and coworkers.
“Yalobusha Health Services is thankful for Dr. Abraham’s 10 years of service and commitment to the patients of this community,” Embry said. “We wish Dr. Abraham the best in his well-deserved retirement.”
Friends, former patients and community members will have an opportunity to thank Abraham for his years of service during a retirement reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9, at the Wesley House next to First Methodist Church of Water Valley. The reception is open to the public.
