Earlier this year, we reported on the longest marriage between two people with Down syndrome ever. Sadly, this marriage has now come to a tragic end, as 58 year-old Paul Scharoun-DeForge has passed away after a long battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, leaving behind his wife Kris.

Paul and Kris were from Liverpool in New York state, and their families each ignored advice from doctors to have them institutionalized. They met at a dance for disabled people in the 1980s, and it was love at first sight, with Kris proposing to Paul in 1988.

“He made me laugh,” Kris said. “I looked into his eyes and saw my future, and that’s when I proposed to him…He said yes.”

The couple had to fight New York state officials for five years to earn their right to wed, but they finally came out victorious. After they married, they decided to combine their two last names.

“The combination of the two names was just perfect,” Kris’ sister Susan Scharoun said. “Our family was just so delighted to have Paul join us, and his family was delighted to have Kris join them.”

The couple decided to renew their wedding vows last August after Kris was diagnosed with pneumonia. At Paul’s funeral, a relative talked about how lucky he felt he was.

“To an outsider, it may not seem that way, but to those of us who knew and loved him, it’s absolutely true,” the relative said.

“They are role models for everybody who wants a good relationship,” Susan added. “They were a team: they deferred to each other and looked out for each other.”

Find out more about this in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wgc40q1nA4