They were known as the real "Fault in Our Stars" couple, as their love story bore a resemblance to the 2012 book and 2014 movie "The Fault in Our Stars," in which teenage cancer patients fall in love.
The young couple garnered worldwide attention last year after CNN wrote about Katie's fight to get a lung transplant.
Katie and Dalton met on Facebook in 2009, when they were both 18. Katie noticed that Dalton's mother had posted a photo of Dalton in the hospital.
"If you ever need a friend to talk to, you can reach out to me," she wrote.
"Sorry, but do I know you?" he responded.
No, you don't, Katie wrote back and told Dalton a bit about herself.
"My breathing is pretty crappy and I see you are in the hospital. I'm sorry. I know it sucks!...But you just gotta stay strong," she wrote to him.
Messages between the two flew back and forth. They realized they were falling in love, but Katie's doctor urged her not to meet with him in person, because Dalton had an infection called Burkholderia cepacia, which can be deadly for people with cystic fibrosis.
"My heart was racing, but I just went right up to him and hugged and kissed him on the mouth without even saying hello," she remembered. "I'm usually not that kind of girl, but it just felt so right."
Katie caught Dalton's Burkholderia cepacia infection immediately, she said.
The couple wed less than two years later, and despite their infections, they were relatively healthy for the next few years.
Katie Prager, the wife, died Thursday after complications from cystic fibrosis and a lung transplant. She was 26 years old.
"Early this morning, she gained her wish of being at home, in her bed, surrounded by her mom, dad, brother and her dogs, dying peacefully, away from the hospital, tubes, IVs," her mother, Debra Donovan, posted on Facebook. "The days to follow will not be easy but I find comfort in knowing that my girl lived, she really lived."
Katie had been in hospice care in her Flemingsburg, Kentucky, home since September 7.
Her husband, Dalton Prager, died just days earlier, on Saturday, after suffering from the same disease. He was 25.
"Dalton fought a long hard battle with cystic fibrosis," Katie posted on Facebook at the time. "He was a courageous fighter and 'give up' wasn't in his vocabulary."
True love really exists when you find the perfect person to share it with.
Source: CNN
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