Michael “was really in love with Tammie,” says Jeannie DiGiovanni, Tammie Oliveira’s former mother-in-law, “and Tammie was really in love with him.”

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

Just two months married, the newlyweds drove from Providence down to Narragansett’s Black Point on Sunday, where the waves crashed up against the slippery, sheer rocks and surf churned from the passing tropical storm.

Tammie Oliveira loved to take pictures, and some in her family believe that she and her new husband, Michael, wanted to watch the high surf roll in, photograph the waves at sunset, and then head to Iggy’s Doughboys and Chowder House for dinner. Michael had a new tackle box, and the rocks are considered one of the best fishing spots in Rhode Island. They’re also treacherous.

A wave pulled Tammie off the rocks and into the water. Michael went in after her, said Jeannie DiGiovanni, Tammie’s former mother-in-law. The family learned later that witnesses saw a man waving frantically for help. They believe it was Michael, trying to save his wife.

Tammie’s body was found Sunday night, but her new husband is still missing.

After searching 200 square miles of the shoreline using a helicopter and boats, the Coast Guard called off the search Monday at 8 p.m. The state police and state Department of Environmental Management had used their own boats in the search; the environmental police decided yesterday that they would reduce the search to routine shoreline patrols. A helicopter from the Rhode Island Airport Corporation will fly over the area and search for Michael’s body today and tomorrow, said Gail Mastrati, spokeswoman for the DEM.

This sudden end to a loving couple, whose romance sparked in the aisles of a Dollar Tree store and at karaoke nights at a local pub, stunned their friends and family. When asked about funeral arrangements, DiGiovanni said she believed that the family wanted to wait until Michael was found.

They thought the couple should be buried together.

Standing on the rocks where the couple was last seen, Michael’s sister Deanna Young yesterday said: “My brother always said that Tammie was his soul mate.”

Michael and Tammie Oliveira had found each other at mid-life, after going through failed relationships and watching their own children grow up. They were 43 and acted like two young kids in love, their families and friends say. They enjoyed riding Michael’s motorcycle, visiting Foxwoods, spending time with their children and Tammie’s two grandchildren. Tammie played her favorite numbers –– 7-17-3-29 –– at Keno. She and Michael wore matching Harley-Davidson wedding rings.

Tammie had grown up in Providence’s Charles neighborhood, where the old modest single-family homes and multi-family houses were built decades ago, close together, like the extended relatives and neighbors who’ve lived here for years. DiGiovanni said Tammie and her son, John, had begun dating when they were students at Central High School and then married. Although John and Tammie later divorced, “Tammie was a daughter to me,” DiGiovanni said, as she sat at her kitchen table.

When Tammie later met Michael, he was welcomed into the family. Michael worked at the Benny’s distribution center in Smithfield. When he came in to the Dollar Tree store in Providence, one of the employees there spotted him and thought he’d be a good match for Tammie, who was working as the assistant manager, said Lori Nelson, John DiGiovanni’s fiancée and a friend of Tammie.

Michael’s family remembers the two meeting at a local pub that features karaoke. Michael loved to sing, said Allan Audino, one of his friends. One of Michael’s favorites was the 1972 song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” about a woman in love with a sailor, who was more in love with the sea.

Both Michael and Tammie were bringing together their extended families –– he had a son, and she had two sons, a daughter, a newborn grandson and a granddaughter who called her “Mimi.” “We were all happy for both of them because they found each other,” said Lisa Dowoit, the mother of Michael’s teenage son.

After spending her life in the Charles neighborhood, Tammie was ready to move on. She and Michael were planning to move to Warren in November, DiGiovanni said. They’d started packing. It was going to be a fresh start for their new love.

“He was really in love with Tammie,” DiGiovanni said, “and Tammie was really in love with him.”

On Saturday night, the Oliveiras stopped by the pub where they’d met. “I looked at them,” said Carolyn Gallo, a friend of Tammie. “They were just staring at each other, from opposite sides of the room, smiling.”

Two nights later, nearly a dozen of the couple’s friends and relatives kept watch all night at Black Point. Some friends had brought a generator, blankets and food. Those who were still there yesterday afternoon were upset that the Coast Guard had called off the search.

Tammie was dead. All they could hope for was that Michael would be found somewhere, perhaps among the rocks, still alive.

With staff reports from Donita Naylor

amilkovi@projo.com