Jen Darbellay Photo by GOFUNDME / HANDOUT
Jen Darbellay was the kind of woman who, while doting on her own two children, was like a loving, adoring aunt to the children of others, her friends say.
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Empathetic, warm, selfless, the first to help out when others needed it, the 50-year-old died after being struck by an SUV during Saturday’s horrific Lapu Lapu tragedy. She’s survived by her husband, Noel Johansen, seven-year-old daughter Darby — both were injured in the mayhem — and 15-year-old son, Ford.
“Jen and Noel, they’re just the sweetest, kindest people I know,” said Michael Daingerfield Hall, a close family friend and business partner of Johansen’s. “Just another level of kindness.
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“It’s just (unfathomable) that the world delivers things to kind and amazing people like this.”
Jen Darbellay and her husband Noel Photo by GOFUNDME / HANDOUT
The family was about to walk home, a block-and-a-half away, when the horror struck, Daingerfield Hall said. Darbellay’s parents have flown to the family’s home from Calgary.
Daingerfield Hall has started a GoFundMe page to help the family with coming expenses.
Darbellay and her daughter were so attached, friends say, that the seven-year-old would sometimes be a bit late for school because she didn’t want to leave her mom’s side.
“It was like they were attached at the hip,” said Munisha Tumato, co-chair of the parent advisory council at Sir Alexander Mackenzie Elementary. “Jen was always making sure she was safe, making sure she was happy, and Jen would dress her up in these really cute outfits.”
After school, Darby was always the first child in line for pickup, waiting for her mom, Tumato said.
“If there was ever a time where Jen was going to be late, she would either text me or text one of the other moms and say, ‘Can you go talk to Darby and just let her know I’m on my way, that I’ll be there in five or 10 minutes?’ so Darby wouldn’t worry about her mom not being there.”
Besides being a loving mother and caring friend, Darbellay was an accomplished seamstress and costumer designer in theatre, a painter and illustrator, musician and singer.
