Noel Johansen’s family is mourning a tragic loss.
The Hallmark star shared that his wife Jen Darbellay was among the 11 killed after a man drove an SUV through the Lapu-Lapu Filipino festival in Vancouver April 26. She was 50.
“It hit us before we knew,” Johansen told The Associated Press in an interview published April 29. “I was falling in slow motion, trying to save my head from smashing in the pavement. It’s like a giant tidal wave.”
The Harvest Love actor and their son Ford, 15, and daughter Darby, 7, survived the attack.
On April 27, Vancouver police confirmed that a suspect, 30-year-old Kai-Ji Adam Lo, has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder.
Following the incident, which also left 32 injured, Johansen reflected on the heartbreaking news.
“What you see here is an injury that means nothing to me because what’s inside my heart is broken,” he told reporters at the scene of the crime April 28, per Global News Canada. “Because my wife passed away behind me at the incident.”
He admitted that his wife, an artist, “never celebrated herself in her life.”
“She never thought of herself,” he said. “She thought of herself as small in terms of reach. I can tell you she was larger than life for any of you who know her.”
“So, don’t be small in life,” he continued, “be big, reach out and reach out as a human being with everything you have and please remember us who went through this.”
Darbellay was also a painter, seamstress, illustrator and costume designer, according to her biography. As the blurb noted, “There has not been a year of her life that she was not a creative artist, she has been very blessed to always work in the arts.”
Over her career, she earned multiple awards for her costuming and began teaching art at The Luminous Elephant in Vancouver last fall.
The studio expressed its condolences following her unexpected death with a heartfelt message about her impact in the community.
“One of the deepest longings of the human soul is to be seen,” the April 30 Instagram post began. “Our dearest luminous instructor, friend, mother, wife, artist, humanitarian – Jen, saw everyone. She encouraged every single student in our studio over a threshold to expressing their deepest longings, voices, sorrows, joy in their art and therefore their life.”
“She volunteered absolutely everywhere for her children, her community and those quietly privately struggling,” the message continued. “Always with the biggest smile in a very very soft way.”
In fact, the studio received emails “begging” them to let Jen teach another course because “she was pure love and joy and so entirely nurturing.”
Simply put, “Everyone adored Jen.”
