Couple Who Died While Taking Son to College Remembered as ‘Doting’ Parents

Maria Galindo Nunney and Donald Nunney, who died in a car crash while dropping their oldest son off at college, are being remembered by loved ones.

The couple was in the car with their youngest children, son Leo, 9, and daughter Lucia, 15, on Friday, Aug. 15, when it “ran off the right side of the roadway,” a spokesperson for the North Carolina State Highway Patrol told PEOPLE.

Their car “traveled down an embankment and collided with a large tree.”

Maria, 50, died in the crash. Donald was airlifted to a nearby hospital but died there. Leo and Lucia sustained serious injuries but are recovering.

They had dropped their 19-year-old son Noah off at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the day prior and were driving from their hotel to visit him when the crash occurred.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Noah revealed that his father had a heart attack while driving. He died within minutes of being airlifted to a hospital.

A week after the tragedy, Donald and Maria’s family members opened up in an interview with ABC.

Donald’s sister Meredith Nunney McCarthy described the pair as “fantastic parents,” saying that her brother “was a loving, doting father.”

“He loved Maria more than anything in the world, and he was just there for everybody,” she said, adding, “I couldn’t ask for a better brother.”

Maria’s brother Sandro Galindo recalled his sister’s “big laugh” and bright personality, saying that she “pretty much lit up every room she was in.”

“She loved to laugh and joke around and didn’t always take life super seriously. She had four kids, so she knew there were troubles and problems, and she always took them in stride,” he said.

The husband and wife were teachers in Cleveland, Ohio, and were beloved to many.

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“All the friends I grew up with were texting me afterwards saying it felt like their parent had died,” Noah told PEOPLE.

Reflecting on the crash, Noah said that he was afraid his entire family had perished when he arrived at the scene.

“They wouldn’t let me out of the car, and the way that they sat me down and the look on the officer’s face was truly horrifying,” he said.

The rising sophomore was shaken by the loss of his parents but has shifted focus to do “whatever I can do to make sure that the kids are okay.”

Leo broke his arms and legs in the crash and was put on a ventilator, but has since improved. Lucia was left with bruising on her brain. She has also gotten better, though Noah told PEOPLE that she wasn’t yet well enough to learn about Maria and Donald’s death.

Noah is taking a semester off school, but he vowed that he’d return and graduate to make his parents proud.

He, Lucia, Leo and their 18-year-old brother Diego will all be in good hands.

“They have a really good support system with … both sides of the family, so we’re doing the best we can to be there for them,” McCarthy told ABC.

A GoFundMe for the family that was organized after the deadly crash has already raised nearly $350,000 to support the children in their time of need.

“Maria and Donald were more than amazing and loving parents. They were also a devoted son and daughter, siblings, caring teachers and friends. They gave so much of themselves to their students and their community,” fundraiser organizers Georgina and Sandro Galindo wrote in the description.

Their tribute continued: “Maria and Donald leave behind a legacy of community, family, and love, all rooted in the devotion they had for their children and their family. That legacy will live on through Noah, Diego, Lucia, and Leo, who carry forward the very best parts of who their parents were.”