Jerry and Marcia Savage died holding onto each other, tightly, when Hurricane Helene caused a large pine tree to crush them in their bed in their Beech Island, S.C. home, late last week, their daughter says.
“My daddy died a hero because he was trying to save my mom,” Tammy Estep tells PEOPLE.
“In their final moment, that’s how they went together: hugging, loving each other until that last second of their life,” Estep, 54, continues.
Jerry, 78, and Savage, 74, were high school sweethearts who both attended Harriet Tubman High in Augusta, Ga., and got married in 1966. The couple shared the same birthday — Jan. 26 — and died on the same day. They were both buried on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 5.
“They just couldn’t be without each other,” Estep says.
Estep, who lives in Augusta, says she spoke to her mother about 4:30 p.m. local on Thursday, Sept. 26, as Helene was set to make landfall on the coast of northern Florida later that night.
Marcia asked if she was ready for the storm and told her to keep an eye out. The storm hit Beech Island — just across the state line from Augusta — around 4 in the morning on Friday, Sept. 27.
“It was just unreal. And the later it got, the worse it got,” says Estep. “And it was just like — ‘bam, bam, bam,’ trees falling and it was crazy. Nobody was expecting any of this.”
“My daddy somehow, I don’t know if he had an instinct or what, he might’ve heard a snap,” she says, “But he was on top of my mama hugging her, trying to protect her.”
According to the family, a nearly 60-foot pine tree fell atop the couple’s one-story home and smashed through their bedroom, landing on Marcia’s side of the bed.
The death toll from Helene has continued to climb in the week since it carved a path of destruction through six states in the Southeast. More than 220 people have been killed, according to officials and news reports.
Estep remembers both of her parents as doers: Her father was an electrician who retired a couple of times but kept finding his way back to work. He was handy — with bodywork or with building furniture and cabinetry, and he loved motorcycles.
“He could build anything,” she says. “He was an all-around wonderful guy. He was my buddy.”
Her mother, a homemaker, was a devoted churchgoer and member of the Second Baptist Church, she says.
“My mama was at that church every time the doors opened,” Estep says. “She was always there for us. She was my best friend.”
The couple were also devoted grandparents to four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
“They lived for family,” Estep says. “They’re the kindest, sweetest people you’d ever want to meet.”
