DaytonDailyNews.com

FAIRBORN — Misty Langstaff's good friend Bethany Bowers said Misty never let her cystic fibrosis or any other hardships get in the way of her belief in kindness.

"She might have been going through all this stuff but she always thought about other people," Bowers said. "Her mom taught her not to dwell in your sickness."

Misty's mother, Georgia Rose, was killed in a car crash on her way home from a hospital visit with Misty in 2001. Misty later lost her sister Danielle to cystic fibrosis.

More than anything Misty wanted to lead a normal life with her husband, Douglas Langstaff, no matter how short.

To that end the couple got an apartment together and moved in just after their wedding April 14.

"It was important for her to get this place," Douglas said. Misty, who Douglas said liked everything neat and clean, spent one of her last healthy days cooking and cleaning and looked forward to having her nieces over to stay.

"We never got this place done," Douglas said sitting in the couple's apartment Wednesday where the microwave was still sitting on boxes and flowers from Misty's funeral covered the kitchen table. "That's the part that's hardest for me."

Cystic fibrosis, an inherited, chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive tract, requires long and repeated hospital stays to deal with lung infections. It was during one of these extended stays that Douglas and Misty met over a bag of pretzels.

Douglas said although their shared disease could have kept them apart — doctors and nurses frowned upon two cystic fibrosis patients dating because they might pass infections between them — it's what ultimately brought them together.

"For us it was a special bond knowing we were going through the same thing," he said.

For the Langstaffs that bond meant helping each other administer medications — usually 30-minute treatments four or five times a day — fetching treats during hospital stays, and ultimately having to make difficult decisions about medical care.

Douglas said he knew it was Misty's time to die when she told him she was in pain and wanted to be comfortable.

"She wanted to go her way," he said. "She didn't want to wear oxygen and carry a tank around."

Misty's sister Danielle lost her battle with cystic fibrosis less than one year ago and Misty wanted everything about her death to be different, according to Douglas.

"She saw how much her sister suffered toward the end," he said.

It would seem, however, that the sisters' bond couldn't be broken even by death. Danielle was married on May 13, 2006, and passed away on June 14, 2006, a month and a day later, just like Misty.

Services were held for Misty on May 21; she was buried next to Danielle in Ferncliff Cemetery.

Contact this reporter at kwedell@coxohio.com

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How to donate

Misty's family has asked that memorial contributions be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Contact the Central Ohio chapter by mail: 740 Lakeview Plaza, Suite 225, Worthington, OH 43085.

Phone: (614) 846-2440

Online: www.cff.org

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