Chris worried about the toll his condition would take on Dana. He told her,"It's not fair for me to put this burden on you." And she said, "You have love for me, I have love for you, and you're still you."

I think the only reason Chris didn't pull the plug on himself was because of Dana's love and her belief that they could make a life for themselves.

On September 25, 2004, Chris celebrated his 52nd birthday. Fifteen days later, an infection stemming from another pressure wound raged through his body and stopped his heart. Devastated, I met with Dana, and we just embraced for a long time and cried.

It was the next month that she told me she had lung cancer.

Dana had had so much more than her share of adversity. In February 2005, four months after she lost Chris, her mother died after ovarian cancer surgery. That November, while her father was visiting for Thanksgiving, he suffered a stroke. It seemed unfair each time something happened to this giving, beautiful person.

A month later, Dana died, on March 6, 2006, at the age of 44.

I had this feeling that Dana was called to be with Chris. Maybe she did too. At her husband's memorial, Dana had looked up and said, "I'll be there with you one day, Chris."

A few months before she died, Dana taped an introduction to a documentary. She told viewers, "For years, my husband and I lived on - and because of - hope. Hope continues to give me the mental strength to carry on.

- Remembering The Reeves by Ken Regan in Reader's Digest (Nov 2006)