Dalton and Katie Prager didn’t meet under the greatest of circumstances. They were both sick with cystic fibrosis which often robs one of their life far too soon.
However, these two took their tragic situations and turned them into the most beautiful thing in the world… love.
The couple met in 2009 on Facebook when they were both just 18-years-old and got married less than two years later because of their rare genetic disease, which eventually ends in respiratory failure and prevents the body from getting the nutrients it needs from food.
The couple bought a home in Flemingsburg and spent their days playing board games, hosting game nights, cooking, and traveling.
“We did stuff, we had fun,” Katie told CNN. “It was like something out of a fairy tale.”
Even though they were both gravely ill and on the national lung transplant waiting list, they managed to enjoy their marriage and each other as much as possible.
Eventually, Dalton’s health began to decline rapidly. One night when Katie called her husband, his mother told her that he was deteriorating.
That’s when Katie decided she would take her name off of the lung transplant list since her name was ahead of his so that he would be one step closer to getting new lungs, according to Newsner.
And eventually, he did.
About a year and a half later, Katie too got new lungs. However, a few weeks later Dalton had a bad infection and a case of pneumonia. Even though it would put her fragile immune system at risk and his, Katie wanted to see her husband.
Soon thereafter Katie’s body began rejecting her lung transplant and it looked as though neither of them would survive. Ignoring doctors recommendations, they decided they would be together one last time.
However, just hours before Dalton was about to make his trip to see Katie, he died. He was surrounded by his family members and Katie via video chat.
“Dalton fought a long hard battle with cystic fibrosis,” Katie said on Facebook, according to CNN. “He was a courageous fighter and ‘give up’ wasn’t in his vocabulary.”
Katie didn’t despair because she was grateful for the time she did have with Dalton.
“I’d rather have five years of being in love and just really completely happy than 20 years of not having anybody,” she told CNN.
Katie ended up passing away just days after her husband’s funeral. Katie said that her story would have made a great book and she knew exactly how the ending would go.
“And they lived happily ever after,” Katie said. “In each other’s arms for eternity.”
And that’s exactly how Katie and Dalton’s story did end, it just happened in Heaven instead of on Earth.
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