Katie Donavan and Dalton Prager have become as popular as Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters of "The Fault In Our Stars." Their romance parallels the story from the novel and movie except that theirs is real.
The couple was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis just as the characters of the novel. They met online and wished to meet each other in person. Katie was advised not to meet with Dalton since he had a highly contagious infection that could significantly decrease her lifespan. Despite their admonitions, Katie met Dalton, and the two got married two years later, both at age 20.
This year, Dalton passed away on September 17th, and Katie, who did end up catching his infection, passed away five days later on September 22nd. Although the average life expectancy for a cystic fibrosis patient is 37 years, they both lived only to 26 years of age.
This story has touched the hearts of many in the world as it shows the significance of love. Katie, who was interviewed by CNN less than a week before she died, said that she never regretted meeting Dalton. She would rather live a few years loving and living life with meaning than to live many more years without having anyone. Katie put her love for Dalton before her life without hesitation. Being able to live every day of her life loving Dalton was her happiness.
These days, with a health oriented society, we often focus too much on how long we live. Perhaps the importance and the joy of life is not the number of years we exist but how we choose to live those years to the fullest.
