Summer McCallum remembers seeing a man coming toward her through the water.

The 10-year-old couldn’t touch the bottom anymore. Waves kept washing over her head as a strong current pulled her farther from the beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Then Derrick Moore reached her.

What he said was simple: He told her to grab him.

Summer did.

Moore, a 47-year-old Georgia teacher and father of four, helped in the effort to get Summer back to safety on Aug. 8. She made it to shore. Moore did not, and his body was recovered after washing ashore the next morning, according to police.

Now Summer and her family are describing what happened in the water and what Moore’s decision meant for the child who came home.

The Moment Her Family Knew Something Was Wrong

Summer had been in the ocean when she realized her feet no longer reached the ground.

“I was just scared and then my feet couldn’t touch the ground,” she told 11 Alive, according to PEOPLE. “The wave just kept going over my head.”

On the beach, her uncle, Ernest McCallum, was gathering the family’s belongings. When he turned around, he could see Summer’s head tilted toward the sky.

At first, Ernest thought she might be playing. He had seen her moments earlier, and everything had appeared normal.

Then she kept moving away from shore.

Ernest went into the ocean after her. Before long, he couldn’t feel anything beneath his own feet as the waves hit him. Several other people entered the water as well, including Moore.

The danger had spread beyond Summer.

As Ernest tried to reach his niece, Moore was making his way toward the 10-year-old, a child he didn’t know.

‘Grab, Grab My Arm’

Summer can still recall the moment Moore got to her.

“I saw him coming, and he was like, ‘Grab, grab my arm,’ and I grabbed it,” she said.

Those were the words she heard from the man swimming toward her while she was being pulled by the current.

But Summer noticed something else almost immediately: Moore was having trouble in the water, too.

“But he was also struggling once he got to me,” she said.

Others eventually brought a flotation device, and Summer was able to get back to the beach.

Moore didn’t return with her.

At the time, Summer didn’t understand what had happened to him. She thought he might still be somewhere in the ocean, trying to swim.

Police said emergency crews responded at about 8 p.m. to a report that a swimmer was missing after going into the water to help a girl caught in a rip current near 10th Avenue South. Authorities said the swimmer had helped get the child to safety before being pulled underwater. His body was recovered the following morning.

Family members later identified the swimmer as Moore, a teacher from Loganville, Georgia.

His daughter said the family loved him and was heartbroken by his death, describing him as a great father who would be deeply missed.

The Phone Call Summer’s Mother Feared

Back home in Greensboro, Summer’s mother, Kamille Raines, received a call from Ernest that evening.

His silence told her something was wrong before he explained what had happened.

“He was quiet,” Raines recalled. She asked whether he was OK. He told her he wasn’t.

Then she asked the question that mattered most in that moment: “Is my baby OK?”

Ernest said yes.

That answer could have been different.

Raines has since thought again and again about the call and how close she came to hearing something else. She said the experience has made her more aware of the time she has with her daughter.

Ernest, meanwhile, believes Moore saved more than one person that night.

By going into the water and helping Summer, Moore meant Ernest didn’t have to make another attempt to reach his niece after struggling himself.

“He saved my life because I didn’t have to go back out there,” Ernest said.

Then he put into words what Moore’s actions meant to the family: “He certainly saved my niece’s life.”

To Ernest, there was no uncertainty about how the family would remember the 47-year-old teacher.

“He’s a hero,” he said.

What Summer Would Tell Him Now

Summer returned from the water with a memory that is unusually clear for such a frightening stretch of time: the waves over her head, the moment she couldn’t find the ground, and Moore coming toward her.

She also remembers his instruction.

Grab my arm.

Moore was a stranger to her. He was also a father of four whose own family would soon receive news that he wasn’t coming home.

His daughter said the family was mourning a man they knew as a loving father. Summer’s family knew him through a single act in the ocean, one that changed the outcome of a phone call hundreds of miles away.

For Summer, there is now something she wishes she could say to him herself.

It isn’t complicated.

“I would say thank you,” she said.

Then the 10-year-old added the words that connect the girl standing safely on shore to the man who didn’t make it back.

“I really owe my life to you.”