Adam Tamburin

atamburin@tennessean.com

In 1961, John Savely made a rare shopping trip to buy a Bible for his only daughter’s seventh birthday.

He died 10 years later, and the Bible became a cherished heirloom for the young woman, who often would flip to the first page to read the inscription in her father’s handwriting:

“Presented to Deborah Savely by Mother and Daddy. June 1961.”

Deb Savely carried the Bible with her everywhere. When she enrolled at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, she read from it every day — until it slipped out of her backpack in 1974.

She searched for the holy book for decades.

“It was like a piece of my heart just broke off,” Savely said. “A part of me was gone.”

That missing piece was restored last month, when retired Vol State staffer Betty Gibson found the Bible while rummaging through her basement. Somehow, it had wound up in a box of debris Gibson collected after an EF-3 tornado swept across the college campus in 2006, peeling away rooftops and scattering belongings like sawdust.

When Gibson saw the inscription, she recognized the Bible’s significance.

“I have one just like it,” she said. “It just had to mean something to somebody.”

So Gibson called Vol State, spurring a search for Savely that captivated several staff members. One of the staffers involved, Amber Regan, spent hours tracking down Savely in a marathon of Web searching and sleuthing.

‘This is a dream’

When Regan telephoned Savely’s office at Edward Jones financial services in Lebanon, a breathless conversation gave way to stunned silence, and then to tears.

“It was the last phone call in the world that I had expected to get,” Savely said. “This is a dream that I don’t want to wake up from.”

Last week, Savely made her way to Vol State, along with her 87-year-old mother, to claim the long-lost Bible. Gibson and Regan were there, too, and there were “a lot of tears, a lot of hugs and a lot of friendships that will never be broken,” Savely said.

Regan and Gibson were both reticent to claim credit for the good deed.

“It’s a blessing. I was blessed to have been a part of it,” Regan said. “It’s not like any other item — a Bible’s special.”

The moment became a spiritual reunion for Savely and her mother.

“My daddy’s infused in that Bible,” she said. “Whenever I lay my hand on the page, I can feel that big old hand of his come over mine.”

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.