:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Johnny-Schmidthorst-Tammy-Schmidthorst-11-082225-982b5c19d7564d0493aa155fdb5ed100.jpg)
NEED TO KNOW
- Johnny Schmidthorst, 48, died of a massive heart attack in his Alabama home on Aug. 16, his brother tells PEOPLE
- A day after starting to make arrangements for his funeral, his wife Tammy, 53, was found dead in the couple’s bedroom
- Although her cause of death has not yet been officially determined, Johnny’s brother believes it was due to a “broken heart”
An Alabama couple unexpectedly died just two days apart earlier this month, which is “just a tragedy” to their grieving family members.
“If there is any solace that makes me feel somewhat better, it’s that neither one of them are hurting anymore and they’re together,” Joey Prusha, 36, tells PEOPLE about his late brother and sister-in-law, Johnny and Tammy Schmidthorst.
“But,” he adds, “it’s still hard as hell.”
On Saturday, Aug. 16, Johnny, 48, died suddenly of a massive heart attack at the couple’s home in Prattville, according to Prusha.
“Tammy tried to give him CPR,” he says, “and then the medics arrived and they worked on him.”
Joey Prusha
Prusha says that he was with Tammy, 53, the following day, Sunday, Aug. 17, to plan out his brother’s upcoming funeral.
“Tammy picked out his casket,” Prusha remembers. “She picked out the song.”
“You could just see the pain in her eye,” he adds. “She was devastated.”
On Monday, Aug. 18, Tammy was supposed to deliver Johnny’s clothes to the funeral home, but by the early afternoon, she still hadn’t arrived and nobody was able to get in touch with her.
A relative later went over to the home to check on Tammy and found her dead in the couple’s bedroom. Prusha says foul play isn’t suspected and there has been no determination about Tammy’s cause of death.
“I have not heard anything about the autopsy results,” Prusha says. “But as corny as it may sound, I genuinely think she had a broken heart.”
When reached for comment, the Prattville Police Department confirmed her death is still under investigation pending a toxicology report.
Joey Prusha
Johnny, who operated a moving business, and Tammy, a nurse, had been together for about 20 years, says Prusha. “They always tried to help people and be good to people,” he says. “They were good, wholesome people.”
As Prusha’s oldest brother, Johnny “was always there for me,” his sibling recalls, but says their relationship was more than just that. “He was my mentor,” Prusha adds. “He always had extremely good grades, like top of his class in so many things. And he was a phenomenal athlete.”
“We still talked every single day,” he remembers, “sometimes multiple times a day. So we were just extremely close.”
The couple leave behind three children from their previous relationships — Johnny’s two sons Landon and Triston, and Tammy’s son Tony — as well as six grandchildren. “Johnny’s sons are just starting their lives out,” Prusha says. “His youngest son just got married back in April.”
Family members have set up a GoFundMe to help pay for expenses for the couple’s funeral, scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 26, in Millbrook.
“We’re trying to give them a proper service and burial,” he says of the husband and wife, neither of whom had life insurance.
Joey Prusha
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
As for how he would like his brother and sister-in-law to be remembered, Prusha says it’s more about how they lived rather than how they died.
“They were just genuinely good people that had a servant’s heart and, and loved helping others,” he says. “And it was just very tragic. We lost them within two days of each other. It’s just a tragedy.”
