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One of Bill Mullan’s most-memorable Thanksgivings happened 50 years ago.

He was 5 years old and spent weeks in the hospital after surviving a pediatric stroke. His parents, determined to keep life as routine as possible, hosted their annual Thanksgiving dinner with the immediate family and another family who lived nearby.

He remembers his mother saying grace at the dinner table with tears in her eyes and a trembling voice. He didn’t quite understand her words.

“I knew it was about me and that I was alive,” he said.

His older sister, Wendy Olah, remembers that Thanksgiving, too. She was 16 at the time.

“I remember my mom trying to keep the Thanksgiving routine, but it wasn’t routine because Bill was very disabled,” she said, adding that the

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