A Hallmark TV star broke down as he paid emotional tribute to his wife, who was killed in last weekend’s horror attack on a Filipino street festival in Vancouver.
Noel Johansen held back tears as he spoke about his wife, Jenifer Darbellay, 50, who was among 11 killed when a mentally-ill driver deliberately rammed his SUV into crowds attending the Lapu-Lapu Day celebration on Saturday.
Johansen, a Montreal-born actor who holds Canadian, British and American citizenship, was on crutches because of his injury from the attack as he addressed a vigil for the victims.
“What you see here is an injury that means nothing to me because what’s inside my heart is broken. Because my wife passed away behind me at the incident,” he said, standing bravely beside his seven-year-old daughter Darby, who was also injured in Saturday’s attack.
“She never celebrated herself in her life,” Johansen said about his costume designer wife, with whom he also shares a 15-year-old son Ford.
He added: “She never thought of herself, she thought of herself as small in terms of the reach. And I can tell you she was larger than life for any of you who know her.
“So don’t be small in life, be big, reach out and reach out as a human being with everything you have, and please remember us who went through this,” he said.
Johansen, who splits his life between Vancouver and Los Angeles, is best known for his work on Hallmark Channel shows and movies include “Garage Sale Mystery: All That Glitters,” “When Calls the Heart,” “Chesapeake Shores,” “Harvest Love,” “Reunited at Christmas,” and “Roux the Day: A Gourmet Detective Mystery.”
Follow the latest on the Vancouver festival attack
A GoFundMe set up by Johansen’s friend and business partner, Michael Daingerfield Hall, to raise money for the grieving family has made $120,000 of its $144,000 target.
