VERY REAL WARNING: Do not read this story if you are a) in public, b) wearing eye makeup, c) all of the above. Seriously.
Young couple Katie and Dalton Prager, who both have the genetic chronic illness Cystic Fibrosis, have said their goodbyes via video call as Dalton passed away over the weekend.
The couple got married five years ago, after beginning their relationship online when they were both 18. They’ve been likened to the young couple from John Green book ‘The Fault in our Stars’.
Their first meeting was a risk to begin with, due to Cystic Fibrosis patients being prone to contracting bacterial infections easily.
Dalton had Burkholderia cepacia, a highly contagious infection for people with CF, which Katie did not have. Her doctors warned her not to meet other CF patients, but the pair ended up meeting where Katie lives, in Kentucky.
She said this about the reason they decided to meet, despite the risk:
“I told Dalton I’d rather be happy — like really, really happy — for five years of my life and die sooner than be mediocre happy and live for 20 years.That was definitely something I had to think about, but when you have those feelings, you just know.”
Two years later, the pair married at age 20.
“He was one of the greatest people I’d ever met and not many people like Dalton come around so you got to get him while you can.”
The pair waited for lung transplants together in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre; Dalton had his first at the end of 2014, and Katie had hers around 8 months later.
After his transplant, Dalton developed lymphoma. He overcame the cancer, but was recently hospitalised with pneumonia and a viral infection.
Katie‘s transplant was problematic as soon as she had the procedure; she has been in and out of hospital consistently since 2015, and doctors told her earlier this month that there was nothing more they can do.
Dalton had been on a ventilator in an intensive care unit for two weeks before his death. His family had planned to fly him to Kentucky to recover in the same hospice as Katie, but unfortunately he was never healthy enough to fly.
So, the last time the couple saw each other was July 16th – their fifth wedding anniversary. This photo (below) was the last one taken of the couple, on their anniversary:
Katie posted an update to their public Facebook page after Dalton’s passing, explaining how hard her husband had fought:
“He was a courageous fighter and ‘give up’ wasn’t in his vocabulary.”
The day before he died, she gave an interview to CNN where she spoke about having no regrets about their decision to meet in person.
“It gave me some of the best years of my life. I’d rather have five years of being in love and just really completely happy than 20 years of not having anybody.”
The couple FaceTimed as Dalton was dying, and the last thing she said to her husband was a declaration of love.
“She told him that she loved him,” Katie’s mother said. “We don’t know if he heard her.”
Oh god. This is everyone reading this story, including us:
Dalton’s funeral will be today (Wednesday) in his hometown of Missouri.
Source: CNN.
Photos: Facebook.
