Husband From the Real-Life 'Fault in Our Stars' Couple Dies at Age 25

Katie Prager, 26, said her final goodbyes to her husband of five years this Saturday as she sat in hospice herself.

Dalton Prager, whose battle with cystic fibrosis and relationship with Katie mirrored the plot of John Green's hit book "The Fault in Our Stars," died from complications of the disease this weekend in St. Louis, CNN reported. He was 25 years old.

Katie was confined to hospice care in her Kentucky home and could not be with Dalton in person, but was able to tell him she loved him over FaceTime as he passed, Katie's mom Debra Donovan told CNN.

"We don't know if he heard her," Donovan said.

On Facebook, Katie wrote that Dalton — "my angel, my best friend, the love of my life, my husband" — was "a courageous fighter and 'give up' wasn't in his vocabulary."

Katie and Dalton first met over Facebook when they were both 18 and had cystic fibrosis. Though meeting in person was dangerous — Dalton had Burkholderia cepacia, a highly contagious infection for people with cystic fibrosis, and Katie didn't — they pursued the relationship anyway and married in 2011 when they were 20 years old. 

"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," Katie told CNN. "That was definitely something I had to think about, but when you have those feelings, you just know."

Katie ended up contracting Burkholderia cepacia, and soon both of them needed new lungs. 

While the two were able to get transplants — him in fall 2014 and her in summer 2015 — neither procedure was successful. Dalton developed lymphoma, which he was able to overcome, but was diagnosed with pneumonia and an infection; Katie recently made the decision to die naturally and has chosen to forgo all life-saving procedures except for dialysis that replaces the function of her failing kidneys. 

Katie and Dalton last saw each other on July 16, their fifth wedding anniversary. 

Dalton had planned to transfer to a hospital in Kentucky last week, where he would recover and then visit Katie, according to CNN. He was never healthy enough to make the flight.

“He meant everything to me,” Katie told the Lexington Herald-Leader. But she has hopes for a happily-ever-after, even after death.

“I’ll see him soon.”