For Mark McLaren, Christmas was a special time. Working as a telecommunications engineer meant weeks travelling and away from his family. So when the holidays arrived, Mark, 54, cherished time with his wife Gaby and their three kids, Jesus, 26, Juan, 11, and Sermanda, 10.
“We’d cook and decorate the house, preparing for a huge family dinner,” says Gaby, 47. And Mark loved nothing more than watching the kids open their presents.
But it all changed shortly after New Year’s Day in 2015, when during a family holiday to visit Gaby’s sister in Miami, Mark suffered a stroke.
He was rushed to hospital and operated on for seven hours before doctors explained to Gaby that he had suffered a brain aneurysm. At the age of 49, Mark was a quadriplegic.…