What should have been a bride’s happiest day ended in tragedy when her father died moments after dancing with her at her wedding.
Michelle Howard married Luis Diego Granera on Saturday in Costa Rica.
She had just finished the father-daughter dance with her dad, Tim Buchanan, when he suffered a fatal heart attack, according to WSPA. Buchanan was 54.
A private funeral service was scheduled to be held Sunday in York County, South Carolina, where Buchanan was a longtime detective for the sheriff’s department.
Buchanan’s wife, Jeni, a wedding photographer, posted about the tragedy on Facebook on Sunday.
“He was the most beautiful soul I have ever known and I will never be the same without him,” she wrote. “I know he loved me and our family.”
The York County Sheriff’s Department also honored Buchanan on its own Facebook page.
The family is requesting privacy, but a GoFundMe page to help Buchanan’s family with living expenses has raised nearly $12,000 of its $20,000 goal in just 24 hours.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Rachel Buchanan Nigro and Vincent Nigro as the couple who got married. This story also misidentified the woman in the lead photo as Tim Buchanan’s daughter. In fact, she is his wife.