A family who recently gathered on Alabama’s Gulf coast for a vacation is grieving after their patriarch reportedly died from a heart attack immediately after saving his grandson from drowning.

Loved ones of 75-year-old Charles “Chuck” Graves told the Alabama news station WALA that his life’s final act vividly demonstrated how important family was to him.

“That was always the one thing,” Graves’s daughter-in-law, Valerie Belt, told the outlet. “He was definitely one of a kind.”

In a piece that went viral in digital circles dedicated to spotlighting stories of people helping others, WALA recounted how Graves – born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky, before moving to Estero, Florida – was visiting the beach vacation locale of Dauphin Island, Alabama, with relatives on 9 October.

A current at one point swept Graves’s five-year-old grandson into waters off the island, and he immediately dove in to try to help the child. Graves reportedly swam out to the boy, brought him to safer waters, passed him off to a relative and instructed them to get back to shore.

Family members realized something else was wrong when Graves didn’t follow. They initially feared he was drowning, and first responders pulled Graves out and flew him by helicopter to a hospital, the Alabama news station WPMI reported.

Graves arrived to the hospital in critical condition, and his family later learned that he had endured a fatal heart attack after saving his grandson.

“We think … Chuck already knew something was wrong or that something was happening because he never made an attempt to swim in, even though he was out of harm’s way already,” Belt said to WALA. “That’s when we figured he was having the heart attack, which ultimately is what took him.”

Graves’s survivors include a son, two daughters, four grandchildren and his wife, Maura. Belt recalled how “he loved them all”, making it a point to dote on and travel with all of them particularly after retiring following his service in the US navy from 1968 to 1972 as well as his career at a power plant.

“He just wanted all of his kids together all the time,” Belt told WALA.

Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning

after newsletter promotion

According to the news station and his obituary, Graves had retired to Florida to spend his golden years soaking up the warmer weather there, participating in a vibrant pickleball scene and fishing.

He planned in January to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his wedding to Maura Teasley Graves.

Graves’s obituary said his remains were being cremated, and his memory would be honored later at a celebration of life.